By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills
When I started writing, I was so excited about the future. I had dreams, goals, my workday organized, notepads and pencils beside my computer, and a whole lot to learn about writing. But there are 10 surprises that hit me along the way to publication. Sure wish I’d have known them sooner!
- Research doesn’t mean a jaunt to the library or sailing through cyberspace. It means a trip into your characters’ lives.
- Some critics are like boo birds that sit on their lofty power lines and “mess” on those beneath them.
- When I grow up, I will know the difference between lie and lay and sit and set. Until then, my characters will rest and stand.
- All my characters are blind because I don’t really know them until they crawl into the shower and start speaking to me.
- True success is a hundred pages without an adverb.
- Emotional pain knocks at the writer’s heart and bleeds onto the written page.
- Do you know how a writer and a flock of geese are alike? They both have a higher calling.
- A good writer knows all the weirdoes in his family are a compilation of himself.
- A good writer knows cutting the flab in his manuscript adds muscle and reduces the fat.
- A writer’s tools are his words—add to them daily, memorize their meanings, and learn to spell them like a first place kid in a spelling bee.
This has certainly been an adventure, and so much more is to come. What have you learned along the path of writing?
DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. Her titles have 
appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; and been finalists for the RITA, Daphne Du Maurier, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests. Library Journal Best Books 2014: Genre Fiction award in the Christian Fiction category for Firewall.
DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, a member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, Suspense Sister, and International Thriller Writers. She is co-director of The Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference and The Author Roadmap with social media specialist Edie Melson. She teaches writing workshops around the country. DiAnn is active online and would love to connect with readers on any of the social media platforms listed at www.diannmills.com.
The Conversation
I wish I’d taken seriously the advice I received from my agent (and several other writers): Don’t be so proud of writing a novel and anxious to submit it that you neglect to edit it…then edit it again. It’s rare, if ever, that a first run-through is publishable.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Richard, Oh yes, the editing and editing and editing.
LOL to number 3 — same here! : )
Groan here, I’ll never get those straight!
Number 2 is so true!
I’ve learned/am learning to take critic’s comments (the ones you described in number 2) and turn them into positive ways to make my next book better, while not taking them as a personal attack in the meantime. It’s not too easy, but it’s a matter of survival for an author!
Thanks for the article, it helped me out a lot!
Aleigha, Thanks for your comments. We writers must have our survival techniques!
How much more I have to learn about writing!