Writers. We love secrets. We buy books promising them, attend workshops hunting for them, and corner successful authors at conferences and ask them, “What’s your secret?” We hope the answer involves a special pen, a cabin in Key West, or consuming enough caffeine to stay awake for a week.
Time is the Most Valuable Writing Tool
Bestselling author Peter James reportedly writes two hours a day, six days a week, beginning at 6 p.m. He also creates deadlines to keep himself moving. This sounds terribly sensible, which can be disappointing if one is more focused on emails, adjusting thermostats, or what’s on television.
Protecting your writing time matters. Put it on the calendar, then guard it like it was the last shady parking space in Florida. You don’t need six uninterrupted hours and a cottage overlooking the sea. Thirty focused minutes can introduce an outstanding new character or be used to start an intriguing new chapter.
Know Where the Story Is Going
Knowing where the story is going is crucial. An outline can help. Your story must satisfy readers in some way. Outside of personal journals, the reader is why we write and publish. Some writers resist outlining because they prefer the thrill of discovery. Others outline every scene, character, snack, and meaningful glance. Either method can work, but knowing the ending prevents your novel from wandering into the Everglades without bug spray.
Then there’s the opening. Steven Goldsberry advises writers not to save their best material for last. Start strong. Readers are busy people with televisions, pets, jobs, and phones full of short videos. Your first lines must give them a reason to stay.
Show, Don’t Tell – Really!
“Show, don’t tell” remains useful advice, although writers hear it so often that it comes printed on coffee mugs. Don’t tell us Harold was nervous. Show the knife shake as he butters his toast. Let action, dialogue, and sensory detail pull readers into the moment. Varying sentence length creates rhythm, atmosphere, and suspense and effectively carries readers forward through a scene. Short ones hit hard. Words matter. One wrong choice can change the tone entirely. Your hero may “stride” into a room, but if he or she then meanders about like “Columbo,” it can damage the hero persona. On the other hand, Columbo always figured the case out, but he had years of hourly episodes – your pages are numbered.
Writers can write confidence into their characters on any given day. Confidence often follows action. Not feeling confident today? That is not a problem. Your characters can feel confident even when you do not. Let them.
Your courage is clicking “Send” while your inner critic predicts humiliation. Not to worry. All writers face rejection. Writing is always a highly competitive and personal endeavor.
Above all, story matters more than style. Beautiful sentences cannot rescue a story in which nothing interesting happens to the characters. Give readers conflict, stakes, surprise, and emotion. Polish the prose, certainly—but remember that readers came for the journey, not to admire polished grammar.
Set a weekly target. Create a ritual. Revise drafts ruthlessly.
The real secret is small, consistent efforts. Writer’s block will still visit, just don’t offer it coffee.
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