I've been through a masters degree program in writing, I've been in a writers group, I've read Writers Digest, I've taken every kind of writing class there is, so in my day, I've seen a heck of a lot of "advice for writers." But there are some things I don't hear talked about that much. So I'm going to add my two cents of bullshit here. The numbering of these sections is not to imply that one is more important than the other, just that this is the order I thought of 'em in.
1. Buy a Computer
Alright, if you're reading this essay on the Web, you probably already did this step. But I'm serious about this one. Buy a computer, AND get yourself e-mail. This is not to say that you need to become a web junkie or waste precious writing time and energy sending joke e-mails to your friends. But look at the writing biz these days. If you write in long hand you'll have to type your manuscripts up for submission. If you're going to type them once, why not type them into a flexible format that you can tweak, change, and most important of all, transmit easily to others? In the olden days, the publisher took your typed up manscript and gave it to a typesetter who... typed it all over again into a special typesetting machine. Nowadays every publisher is doing all they can to squeeze their budget. They can save a lot of time and money by eliminating the re-typing stage. This also keeps new errors from being introduced into the manuscript, which will save you work later.
But I'm not published yet, you say. I'll worry about that later... Wrong. Many publications these days are starting to require that the stories they buy be provided in electronic form. Which means if you don't have a computer now, you'll be renting one at Kinko's or borrowing one from a friend if you make the sale. But what if ou don't make the sale because of your manual typewritten manuscript? You might not even know that was why the editor rejected you. Maybe they liked the story, but ... well, it wasn't worth the hassle of working with a writer who is in the Dark Ages.
It doesn't have to be an expensive computer. In The Want Ad (TM) here in Massachusetts (which you can pick up on any newsstand or at any convenience store) there are people selling perfectly good but 1-2 year old Macintoshes for mere hundreds of dollars. For under $500 you can get a machine that, in all likelihood, still has all the software the first owner installed on it. If buying a laser printer (even used) is still beyond you, remember that one, some ink jet and bubble jet printers now are really good quality, and two, you can bring your disk to a Kinko's or similar photocopyiong and services shop to print out your original. If you do this I'd recommend you then send a photocopy of your original when you submit, and keep the original in a file for next time you need it.
And e-mail. You need to be in touch. I think e-mail at this point is far more important that the fax machine to the prose writer. As I said before, you don't have to be an Internet junkie. But have the availability of e-mail at your disposal, so if you do need to transmit text and revisions back and forth, you can. This is the same as with faxes, you don't have to buy another phone line and keep a machine on all the time. Just have the machine and plug it in when you are going to use it. Even better, get a software package that handles faxes using your computer! Then you don't need a separate machine, and hey, you were going to buy a computer already, weren't you? Weren't you?
The computer is a tool, an extremely necessary tool, for writers. You can't be a pizza delivery guy if you don't have a car. You need the equipment that goes with the job. Your computer is an investment in your career. But what if I don't make back the money? you say. Screw that, it's a terrible way to think. If the computer cost you $500 and your first story sells for $50 you figure it'll never "pay for itself." Not a healthy attitude. How many ^^$*#@% pizzas do you think that schmuck has to deliver before his car is paid for? He better not be thinking of it that way...
Besides, computers are full of mini-tools to make your life as a writer easier. A word count function in your word processor is a big time-saver. A spell-checker is also a friend, though not one you should replace proofreading with. An online dictionary, this I love (though it can be a distraction, too, just like the paper dictionary...). I also keep my journal in a word processor file. This means not only is it always possible to find my journal when I want to write in it (unlike the paper-based version, which is sometimes in the car, in my bedroom, in the kitchen...), but now I can search through it quickly and easily. Uh, let's see, didn't I make some notes about that character about six months ago? Hmm, can't remember exactly when it was... let's search for that characters name... Bingo.
Writing is hard enough--any hurdles that keep from the actual writing can actually significantly keep me from producing. The computer generally eliminates these hurdles and slow downs rather than creating more. Once in a while it creates more... as when it breaks down. This is just like when the pizza guy's car breaks down... you have to bite the bullet and get it fixed or get a new one. But in eleven years of composing on Macintoshes, I haven't had to get rid of one yet.
One postscript to the whole exhortation to buy a computer. I don't use Microsoft Word, and this has never hindered me. Just thought you should know.
2. Why Writing Isn't Like Dieting (And Why It Is)
The writer's life generally seems stuck between two unpleasant extremes--one, having the urge to write but not having time or energy to devote to it, and two, sitting down to write (perhaps needing to write by deadline) and being "stuck." The first thing to remember is that both states are states of mind. The first, in which you're just "too busy," i something every writer I know who has to contend with. If you're going to have anything to write about at all, you have to have a life, family, friends, job (probably), as well as time to rest and relax once in a while. No one is ever going to give you several hours all to yourself to do "nothing" in. You will always have to discipline yourself to create that time and space to do it in. Some writers lock themselves in a room in their house and pretend not to be home on certain days or during certain hours. Some leave the house to write in cafes, or on writers' retreats. I'm not going to endorse a particular method since each of us is different. The point is, there's a measure of self-discipline necessary to do it. And sometimes you'll just feel you don't have the will power to fight the world and beat everything back from your writing space.
The other extreme, in which you've created the time, but you find yourself stuck, is likewise a self-discipline problem. Can you "force" yourself to write? What if what you write is crap? Don't think like that--low opinion of yourself or what you write is a guaranteed trip to writers block. I just assume I'm going to have a lot of moments of "this sucks" and keep going. I figure if, in the end, it really *does* suck, I've at least exercised my writing muscle. It's true, the more "in shape" your writing muscle is, the more likely it will be to perform when and how you want it to. For me, the first state, in which I need to make space to write, is like dieting. I need to have will power not to do something... in this case, not to spend all my time working my other job or seeing my friends or sleeping. I ned to not fall into the temptation to watch tv at a friend's house every night, and so on. The other state, in which I need to actually produce, is like working out. No matter how pointless it may seem, no mater how "not in the mood" I may feel, I have to go through the motions.
Now the problem with this parallel is that, well, lots of people set resolutions for themselves (sometimes annually) that they'll lose weight and get in shape. And they generally break those resolutions after a few days or weeks. We often lack the will power to do what we know damn well is best for us.
So what do you do when you're a writer and seem to have a will power problem, either Type 1, Type 2, or both? Okay, I *am* going to make some suggestions, but they all boil down to the same thing, which is recognizing that it *is* a will power problem, and not under any divine agency's power to remedy it. *You* have to do it for yourself. On the one hand, it's easy. Nike: Just Do It. But that's of course the hardest thing of all, when you have one of these problems, the doing it. Don't wallow in guilt over not doing it--every day starts clean slate. What you did yesterday, or failed to do yesterday, doesn't matter. Your failures don't accumulate, neither do your successes. That's why it is not like dieting or working out. You don't get on the scale every day and see how much writing you've gained or lost. You don't count how many words you can write per minute or whether your output goes up or down. Each day, or each writing period (if say, you only write on weekends) counts fresh. That way you can neither be haunted by all the nights you failed to write, nor daunted by how many nights it will take to finish writing that novel/screenplay/poem/whatever.
There are ten million books out there in Self-Help on how to get will-power going, whether in sports, in life, in family, in business... Many of them advocate the same techniques for getting over the hump. Do it with a friend, check up on each other. Join a group. Set personal deadlines if you don't have actual ones. Use actual deadlines as a motivator! You want to write that story about the Christmas doll, what's the deadline date for submissions for the Christmas issue of Genius Fiction Quarterly? Find out and then do it.
For me, absolutely nothing gives me energy and motivation like a deadline, but this means sometimes that I fall into a rut. I get invited to submit to anthologies that are similar to the ones I have already been in, so I write more fiction that is the same. How do I make time to break out of that mold? It's hard, but once again, it's will power. I just have to make the decision to blow off something else and work on a different style or piece. And I too, fall off the wagon. I am supposed to be writing... and I find myself playing video games (evil! especially when you have an RSI...) I set aside a weekend to write, and end up using the time for social reasons. But then, once in a while I'll end up blowing off something else, a party, something for my job, and write instead, too. I feel it all evens out for me in the end, so I try not to stress about it. I try to save my stress for the actual results of the writing.
3. Don't Confuse "Being A Writer" With Writing
This one's easy. Doyou want to "be a writer" or do you want to write? Believe it or not, a lot of the stuff we assciate with the way a writer should act, should be, gets in the way of actually doing any writing. Some of this is psychological bullshit--like the old notion that writers were drunkards, say. Or that you must be alone to write. I used to have that one. Now I can write the most gut-wrneching stuff with someone sitting behind me.
But there's also the business of being a writer, which has to be taken care of. You have to read your contracts, you have to write your letters, you have to network and schmooze, etc. This is all part of being a writer, but don't confuse that stuff with actually writing. Maybe this is self-evident because I dont have tons to say about it. But there you have it.