A Letter to The New Writer Wanting to Carve Out a Career
3 of my top tips from 15 years of experience
Dear New Writer,
I’m so glad you reached out. I remember what’s it like at the start. I didn’t know what I was doing wrong and I didn’t know who to ask.
Thankfully, I had some great mentors along the way and I’ve been in this career for 13 years now. One thing I’ve learnt is it’s less about what you write, and more about how you write it.
Here’s 3 tips I wish someone had given me earlier in my career:
Pour those concrete slabs
I can tell you’re a deep thinker, which is essential for writers, but sometimes our deep thinking makes us too abstract. It confuses and bores our readers.
When you get an abstract idea you want to write about— like love, or investing, or writing techniques — you need to give your readers something to hold. Something concrete.
Your abstract idea is like a red balloon filled with helium. It’s gorgeous and special and people want to see it, but it floats away too easily. They keep letting the string go.
Give them a concrete example. Tie the balloon string to their wrist. Then they’ll be able to keep your shiny idea with them for longer.
Remember it’s not College
I’m guessing you’re writing online, yeah? Informal writing rules here.
Your professor isn’t your audience, thankfully! But don’t make the mistake of thinking that makes it easy.
You’re competing for something different than an A-grade now. You’re competing with YouTube and Netflix and gaming. Most of the time, those flashy pixel-punching formats win, too.
To compete at all you need to make sure your readers are entertained. It’s not enough to just “inform” them. Any old AI can do a basic “How-to”.
You need to be good company. Someone they’d want to have a coffee with.
You need to be like a friend, helping them understand something cool. Don’t be afraid to be a bit silly or casual — even in a very academic topic, like how your brain works. Don’t get me wrong; it’s not about dumbing it down, but it is about getting alongside your readers and being their friend.
Stand out by being human
Don’t forget to inject “you” into your stories.
You know how I mentioned AI before? There’s a reason for that. If you haven’t heard already, we’re starting to compete with AI as writers, and we will do more and more. In March 2021, GPT-3, an AI model, was generating an average of 4.5 billion words per day.
AI is faster, cheaper, good with data, etc. Some of the copywriting and news reporting jobs have already disappeared. (By the way, you can use AI as a writer if you want to — many writers are).
But we do have something AI doesn’t. Not yet anyway!
We can offer readers our humanity.
Put yourself into your stories, even just in the language you use — language says a lot about you. Let them get to know you. I’m a New Zealander and I used to switch everything to American, but now I often leave kiwi slang dotted through my pieces. Fair dinkum — no, that’s Australian.
Not every piece needs to be a personal essay, but it can still have your personality in it.
Readers don’t want dry information. Any AI writer can give them the facts. They want to connect with other real people and feel like they have something in common. Trust me, I write super personal stories and it’s not as scary as it sounds.
People want to feel like they know you. It doesn’t even have to be significant. For example, I’m obsessed with buying books, silly T.V. series where people find love, and I can’t stop eating fries even though I know they’re terrible for me. You?
Wrap Up
It’s a great time to be a writer, but it’s also a competitive time. The good news is, a lot of new writers drop out quickly. I hope you don’t. If you love writing, like you say you do, I hope you stick with it.
Keep learning. Come up with concrete examples for your ideas. Inject your personality, and share what you learn with your readers as if they’re your friends.
It might take a few years, but I’m sure you’ll carve out a career for yourself. Keep in touch,
Kelly xx
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