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Best Practices for New Writers from a Peer's Perspective
Episode 2 • 6th March 2024 • The Penman's Journal • Gabriel Sidwell
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Penman Ventures Podcast Episode 2

Best Practices for New Writers from a Peer's Perspective

Welcome to Penman Ventures, a multimedia web journal where I dedicate my time to delving into the stories behind various works of art, media, news, and a myriad of interesting topics.

In this episode, we're taking a step back to review the basics of story craft for folks who are new to the process. We'll go over four best practices for both new and veteran writers, reviewing research tied to these practices that are generally beneficial to incorporate into everyday life. We may also share a couple of fun anecdotes. Tune in and find out more!

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Transcripts

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I had to have been five or six years

old when I started to write regularly.

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I always carried a notebook with me to

class that I used to write in whenever

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I was bored,

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which was pretty often.

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I didn't get in trouble with my

teachers necessarily, but it did come

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up in barret teacher conferences.

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My early days involved actually

transcribing what happened in video

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games into written word.

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Way before the concept of copyright

existed in my head,

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I would sometimes remix what actually

happened in game in

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a narrative.

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I liked more

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a year or two into me doing that.

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I discovered what fan fiction was.

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I still cringe at the stories that

involve self insert sometimes,

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but no one could deny that fan fiction

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is a good way for young writers to get

into the craft nowadays.

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Welcome.

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I'm your host.

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Gabe, also known as The Penman.

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There are a lot of successful authors

now who have published their work.

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But for every one published author,

there

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have to be, like,

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thirty to forty writers whose work

has never seen the light a day.

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Those reasons can vary.

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But I guarantee that one of the bigger

reasons for this is not having enough

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experience with the process of

storycraft to feel confident in

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publishing your work.

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I don't have the cure all for stage fright,

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But I wanted to at least talk about the

different things new writers can do now

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to build confidence for publishing.

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These include good habits

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you can form to the hard realities of

writing and authoring that make us

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hesitate sometimes.

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And I'm going to also present some

research backed ways you could help

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adjust to those realities.

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Welcome to Penman Ventures.

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We're available on Amazon, Audible,

YouTube,

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Spotify and Pocket Casts

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by now.

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Whatever your preferred listening app

is, be sure to

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be sure to subscribe too for the

latest podcast episodes

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that are released.

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And be sure to also visit my website at:

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www.penmanventures.com

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That is P-E-N-M-A-N-V-E-N-T-U-R-E-S

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for all of our available content.

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All right, let's go ahead, roll the

introduction.

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So I have

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four things

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to go over today that is going to be

presented mostly for

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new writers getting used to the craft,

but there's going to also be some

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topics here that are backed by research

that all of us could apply to everyday life.

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And

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there's going to be links included in

our podcast notes today for anyone who

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is interested in that kind of stuff, to

go and check out these articles themselves.

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Now, the

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first thing I wanted to go into,

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for new writers to get used to their craft,

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is to

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get used to goal setting and routines.

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We're going to go ahead and talk about

that right now.

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And our first lesson on the writer's life: Milestones

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Milestones.

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Lots and lots of

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milestones.

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Any new writer getting into the craft

should learn this lesson early setting

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goals and forming a routine based on

those milestones.

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Seriously,

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any progress is good progress.

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Real talk here for a moment.

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Who'll else...

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who can't help but feel a little

disheartened

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when they look at another all author's

social media account

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and read how they've written like

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5000 words that afternoon alone.

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I have.

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At first, I

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can't tell you how much

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we as humans like to compare ourselves

to others.

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A lot more than even we may realize.

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We'll look at our neighbors and think

that their grass is greener than ours.

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But this trap is a downfall of many

fledgling writers

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when handling intellectual property and

the ideas that are our own

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it's futile to compare ourselves to

others because it muddles a process

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that's reasonable for us in order for

our work to mature.

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Ideas when they are born.

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they are born with a foundation that's

reasonable and tangible for us.

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When we look at another's work after an

idea is born, it makes our foundations unstable.

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If we tell ourselves that in order to

succeed, we need to write however, many

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words per day were just putting

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the roof before the scaffold, at that

point, before that pen even touches

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paper, or before our first key stroke

on Scrivener, or any other writing process,

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computer app you use,

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all writers need to have a simple

conversation with themselves,

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what are my

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goals?

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What are my milestones?

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And that conversation

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answers the questions.

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How many words do we write per day?

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What does a good day of writing look

like?

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For someone at my level,

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it should look more like this.

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Michael creton, the author of Jurassic

Park, used to write close to:

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words per day on average,

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back when he was still around

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in comparison.

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Stephen King writes about 2000 words

per day.

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Ernest Hemingway,

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only wrote on average 500 words per day.

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They were all famous writers by their

own right,

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but all had very different milestones

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for a daily word count and the amount

of work they did per day

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no one is asking you to match any of

the authors I listed just now in order

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to be successful.

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The only common thread

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between these writers is that they had a

word count per day,

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which is the point I'm trying to make.

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For anyone new to the craft,

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get into the habit of setting

reasonable goals for yourself, whether

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that's 100 words, 500 words or 2000

words per day,

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and get in the habit of meeting those

goals

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regularly

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Writers need to live on a routine.

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And the only way to train a routine is

to meet predetermined goals daily.

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Doing this will help you be a better

writer overall, and help you get work done.

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For anyone curious,

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I write about 1000 words per session

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myself. Used to be around six to 800

words.

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It's like training a muscle,

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writing however much per day.

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Get your routine started today and

start getting some P.R.s

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If you are looking to become a better

writer yourself,

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get writing.

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If you're not doing this already, start doing it,

before it's too late.

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New writers should also get used to

reading a lot.

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All writers, regardless of what their genre

or niche is,

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should immerse themselves in a diverse

array of literature.

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Not only is it good to be well read,

but it also helps you gain exposure to

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different writing styles,

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narrative techniques and storytelling

conventions.

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It's a good way to gain inspiration

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and a good way to explore different

genres, themes, subjects,

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while also helping you develop a better

sense for language, syntax and rhythm

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for when you're creating your own

narrative.

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Honestly there's a good reason why

everyone says you should read any book

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you could.

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Well,

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any good book that you come across, you

could probably get away with skipping

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the books your English teacher would

probably assign you, except The Giver

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and Farenheit 451.

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I highly recommend those.

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Look for books that are big in the

industry right now, and books that are

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trending and get used to familiarizing

yourself with what readers are

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responding to

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nowadays

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that's the second regular habit

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I highly recommend to all new writers

getting into the craft.

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But if you're more interested in the

technical aspects of writing and

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fiction writing, especially

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there's a book that I recommend called

Serious Daring, by Lisa Roney, published

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by Oxford University Press.

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The link to that book will be included

in our show notes.

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And with that, we're going to move on

to the third recommendation / topic /

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habit for all new writers to

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get used to, especially when they're

looking to get into storycraft:

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Get used to criticism.

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It can be your friend.

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Maybe we'll go ahead and expand on this

one a little bit more.

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Feedback, reviews,

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you'll want to learn to get used to

hearing and really assessing comments

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on your work, especially as a new

writer

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and when you're growing into your craft,

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Creation in a vacuum, can be

suffocated.

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Whether you choose to use an editor or

just have a significant other read a

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chapter of your book,

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having pure feedback can help you

become a better writer.

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There's actually one study from the

advances in language and literary

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studies journal I found

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that says,

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peer feedback,

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or also known as pure response, peer

editing, peer critiquing and peer evaluation,

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can provide students with the

opportunities to discover and explore ideas

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and negotiate

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with the audience about these ideas.

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Now I understand that folks who are new

to the industry, new to writing, new to

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their craft, may have a difficult time

developing the right mindset

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to take constructive criticism and

apply that to your work.

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That's completely natural.

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Criticism automatically triggers a

response in our brain

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as emotional stimuli

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it's a natural process.

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Kuang, Kamel-Elsayed

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and Pitts from the Medical Science

Educator Journal,

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wrote

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on the theory and practice

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about cognitive and cultural approaches

to receiving criticism.

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This was in the context of people

working in health care,

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but their recommendations are actually

really great, and could apply to a lot

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of different facets of life.

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There are three key points

psychologists listed here specifically

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in regards to this

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First

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Or,

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the first recommendation, rather, is to

be explicitly aware of the two level

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cognitive model this is involved

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in our response to emotionally charged

stimuli.

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Now what is this two level model?

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It is

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described as

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emotions are automatic,

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unconscious behavioral

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and cognitive responses triggered when

the brain detects a positively or

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negatively charged significant stimulus.

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The second level of this model is

feelings.

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Feelings, in turn, are the conscious

perceptions of emotional responses.

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So the first recommendation is to

recognize that there are

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unconscious emotions and conscious

feelings.

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The second recommendation,

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and this may require some training, is

to be aware of the common weaknesses in

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human nature

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that hinder an appropriate response to

criticism,

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with an emphasis on never using this as

an excuse to defend unease or anxiety

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towards criticism.

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In short,

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you should recognize

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when you're experiencing anxiety

towards criticism and conquering

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the weaknesses of human nature

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to help you grow as a person by

adopting criticism in a positive way.

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And here's our final recommendation

that come from the psychologist,

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recognize that good things can turn

bad, and bad things can turn good.

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And make this wisdom to be common sense.

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What they mean by this is, whenever you

receive criticism,

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good or bad, you should not be totally

complacent when you receive good feedback.

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And you could take bad feedback and

criticism

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to make improvements

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to what you need for anything, a better

product, better story, a better work ethic

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learned to thrive on both good and bad

criticism,

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and adopting

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or

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reinforcing

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what you're doing correctly

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to perform better

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at whatever you're trying to accomplish.

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Now

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this is a very short summary of this

study.

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I highly recommend, checking out this

report, however you can, especially if

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you're interested in psychology,

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the link to this study is also going to

be included in the show notes.

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Now, the 4th

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and final recommendation,

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or habit, or however you want to

describe it, that we could give to new

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writers looking to explore the craft is

to

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absolutely be a part of the community.

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The life of a new writer can be an

extremely lonely one.

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After all, the only barrier to entry is

to writing, is a pen and paper to get started.

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But remember how I said that creativity

could suffocate in the vacuum?

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A writer's existence does not need to

be lonely though,

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especially today,

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with the internet and social media as

it is,

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you can connect with any

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community or group you want online,

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and only maybe need to fill out the

generic application you need to join

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that one Facebook group that requires

it.

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Joining the writing community as a

whole,

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not only helps you with your writing by

providing you with a means to bounce

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ideas off your peers, which I mentioned

was a good thing earlier,

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you could also learn so much from other

writers about the process of getting

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your story out there,

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traditional

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versus self-publishing, marketing, how

to handle your social media accounts,

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the different ways you could display

your work,

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for example, kindle vella versus

full release.

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Unless if you're

fantastic at researching this kind of

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stuff on your own, then being able to

just ask whatever you're curious about,

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can be an invaluable method to learn new

things about storycraft and publishing.

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If you're a new writer,

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check out Facebook, Twitter and Discord

after you're done here

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today.

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These are probably the easiest

platforms where you could find a group

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you jibe with and start connecting with

your peers as soon as today.

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I myself am a part of a couple Facebook

groups and a part of discord groups as

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well, where I ask questions all the

time of my peers and have them review my

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work regularly.

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Now.

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These were four practices

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new writers should start implementing

in their daily lives

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today

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help them grow within the industry that

they can implement.

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I would love to start a dialogue,

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what other suggestions you have for

new writers starting in their craft?

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Have you come across any studies of

your own that could apply to everyday

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life, if not writing alone?

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Or are you a new writer and have

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suggestions of your own that have

helped you kind of grow in the industry

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you felt like?

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If you're listening to this from your

favorite podcast app, I invite you to

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join me at

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www.penmanventures.com

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to start that conversation today,

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you could subscribe to the journal for

all of our latest content updates.

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And support an aspiring author and

public health enthusiast's journey

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by showing your love of the work.

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Otherwise, I'll catch you next time.

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Stay safe out there and bye for now.

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