We've all heard it: "To be a real writer, you have to write this way!" Whether it's outlining, writing from beginning to end, or writing scenes and shuffling them until you find the right sequence, a lot of writers seem to think their way of writing is the only way of writing. It was this attitude that held me back for years with my first novel. When I first started writing, I thought all writers started at word one and ended at word the last. I tried it and stalled, so set the book aside for a very long time. When I picked it up, a much older, but not so much wiser me, listened to the voices that said that real writers write their novels in just that way. I set book 1 aside again and tried it on book 2. Book 2 stalled. I set it aside and tried it on book 3, and book 3 stalled as well. I finally realized that, regardless of what real writers do, I don’t write that way. I had to find my way. So I picked book 1 back up and tried again, this time approaching it as a learning novel. And, boy, did I learn.

I learned that real writers write in the way that most encourages them to finish the work. I learned that we all have to figure out what works for us as individuals. No one else can tell us this, we have to find it on our own. Maybe this is why so many first novels end up in the bottom desk drawer or under the bed: these are the novels that teach us how we need to write. The process of floundering around and trying to figure out what works for you is bound to affect the quality of the writing, if not the story itself. But it's a process that must be experienced. It involves not only finding the way that works for you, but also learning to hold to it. It's working through this process that makes you a real writer. It's working through this process that gives you the courage to do what you need to do as a writer regardless of what others, particularly experienced writers, say.

This doesn’t mean you don’t explore other options. We all grow, as people, as workers in our jobs, as a part of our families, and as writers. We learn of new ways of doing things we never even thought of before. If we shut these ways out because we've "always done it this way," we risk becoming stagnate, and no writer should be stagnate. Writers are explorers. We explore the world through words. By experimenting with new ways of writing, we discover new tools that aid us as writers. We learn. We grow. We revitalize ourselves and our writing.

How should you write? You should write in the way that fits you. Experiment until you find the way that gets you to a completed story or novel. Your learn whether or not your style of writing is influenced by length or genre or any of a number of other factors that come into play when writing. For example, I write my shorts from beginning to end, from first word to the last, without outlines or notes of any kind. This is known as an organic linear style. This is the way of writing that I thought, and was later told, made a person a real writer. But I can't write novels that way. To complete a novel, I write mostly in a linear structured style -- using outlines and notes to help me get to the end, with a lot of organic writing (world building and adjusting the plot as I write) thrown in. Occasionally, I even have to write novels in a non-linear fashion just so I keep moving forward on the novel without letting a scene hang me up. And I'm learning I have to be careful with how much world building I do and when I do it. Too soon or too much and I burn out, I don’t want to do it even though it's necessary to the continuity of my novel. I have to space the world building out to make it work for me and the story. That means there are a lot of times when I'm writing without any clue whether it will fit into the world I have made for it. But this is okay. That's part of what revision is for.

When it comes to your writing, you do what you have to do to get it done, just like anything else in life. You find your way, and you never let anyone convince you that you're wrong. As long as you finish the work, it's right for you. It's the way you should write.