Essential Writing Skills for Authors

Welcome to the first in a four-part series of essential skills for published novelists!

Full-disclosure: I started this as one big post of essential skills for debuts... and then quickly realized a two things:

1 - I had way too much to say to confine this to one post

2 - These are skills that authors don't automatically learn just because they've published more than once, so this series is not really just for debuts. It's for all of us.

So! I've now rewritten this for all author stages in mind and separated it into four parts. The overall categories are:

• Essential Writing Skills
• Essential Marketing Skills
• Essential Emotional Skills
• Essential Business Skills

Before you dive into this our first set of skills -- writing skills -- an important note: 

Please do not let this list overwhelm you.

There is no hurry to master these skills. You do not have to nail them perfectly, either. Like writing a novel, this growth process will be iterative. You can approach these skills one at a time, and you don't need to master them before you move on.

You'll try things. See what works. Make adjustments. Try again. Some of what I offer (especially in this one in particular!) may not work for you. That's okay! Consider this your permission to toss anything that doesn't work for your unique writing process. We all create differently, and I think that's a beautiful thing.

This also isn't an exhaustive list. 

I intentionally kept myself limited to the top 3-4 skills per category, and I picked the ones that come up most often in my conversations with authors. There are more skills involved in creating a sustainable, joy-centered career than what I could include here.

If you want tailored support for your author goals, you can click here to learn more about coaching.

Okay, let's dive in!
 

Knowing When (& How) to Ask for Help

Just because you've sold a book doesn't mean you suddenly have to be perfect. No one expects you to be completely self-sufficient as a writer!

The whole point of working with publisher is having a team who can help you. 

The edit letter you receive isn't a test. It's the beginning of a conversation.

If there's something in those notes that you don't understand--or you're not sure the best way to implement it--talk to your editor! Many are happy to hop on a call to go over their notes and help you solidify a revision plan that you both feel good about.

If you feel a bit intimidated by your editor, you can also go to your agent as your first line of support. How involved they'll get may vary based on how editorial they are, but you can absolutely let them know when you're struggling. That's part of what they're there for!

A good agent wants to know when you're having a hard time so they can help mitigate that struggle sooner rather than later. 

As for how to ask for help, my biggest tip is to avoid the urge to apologize. You've done nothing wrong! Everyone gets stuck sometimes. It's okay to ask for help. 

So, no apologies.

An email asking for support might sound like this:

Hey [Agent],

I'm working on edits for Book Title, and I'm struggling to figure out how to fix [note]. I have a few options, but none of them feel quite right. Do you have any availability over the next couple weeks to hop on a call and talk through it? I can keep working on other sections in the meantime, but I just cannot crack this bit.

Thanks!

Don't forget you can ask for support from your peers, too!

If you're in any kind of author community (Discord group, etc.), reach out and ask if anyone's available to brainstorm. I've often found that authors are happy to help with this kind of thing. 

They don't need to read your book to provide useful ideas, either. People who really get story can be incredibly helpful with just a general overview of what's going on in your book. Let yourself ask for help.

There are no medals for suffering during the creative process.

Protecting Your Writing Time

Whether you have a Day Job or you write full-time, protecting your actual writing time can be a bigger challenge than most people expect.

In addition to all the other parts of your life (Day Jobs, family stuff, and more), there are also publishing demands on your time, especially as you get closer to release day. You'll have questions about cover stuff and marketing requests and your own ideas about how much personal promo you "should" be doing on your own.

It's all-too-easy to get sucked into these other tasks and wind up with way less time than you want to do the important work of actually editing your book -- and then writing the next one. 

Protecting your writing time (from both other people and your own procrastination habits) is essential to building momentum in your career. 

While you'll probably want to do some marketing stuff for your books, the most important thing you can do for the longevity of your career is make each book something you're proud of and then move on and write another one. And that requires time. 

If you've ever caught in a "should I write or work on X marketing thing," the best answer 99.9% of the time is to write.

I've talked a lot about consistent writing on my podcast if you need help with this. Here are some of my favorite episodes about finding the time to write and showing up consistently:

• Episode 77: The 4 Cs of Consistent Writing
• Episode 150: Emergency Writing Protocols (this one's about how to write consistently when life keeps getting in way)
• Episode 178: Writing Alongside a Day Job
• Episode 179: Writing as a Full-Time Author
• Episode 192: The Real Trick to Writing Faster

 
Focusing Your Editorial Efforts

For many authors, by the time they get to the copyedit and pass pages stage of the publishing process, they hate their book. 

They find themselves wondering why anyone wanted to publish it in the first place. They decide the whole thing is trash and consider canceling their book deal, deleting the file, and running away to live in a cave where no one will ever know they're responsible for the mess between the cover of their book.

I believe this experience -- while incredibly common -- comes from the inherent repetition in the process of revising a novel.

However!

I also think many of us (usually from a place of perfectionism and fear) exacerbate this problem by forcing ourselves to complete every single revision round with a full read through of the book. 

Now, this might be a controversial take, and ultimately you have to decide what works best for your unique writing process, but I think so much of this story-fatigue based hatred of our books comes from a lack of prioritization for what needs to happen at each stage of the editorial process. 

With the caveat of "everyone works differently" and "everyone has different creative priorities so ignore whatever doesn't work for you," here's how I like to focus my attention during different rounds of edits. 

Feel free to use this as a jumping off point and adjust to what works best for you, knowing that you'll iterate this process to better suit you with each new book you publish.

Developmental Edits

This is the stage where your editor is giving you big picture notes about character, plot, world building, stakes, etc. During these edits (which can include 1-3+ rounds of notes depending on the project and the way your editor likes to work), your story is likely undergoing some pretty major changes. You might be deleting entire chapters, characters, or storylines. Hell, you might even be rewriting large chunks of the book from scratch.

When I'm at this stage of the process, I don't let myself get caught up on making sure every line sings the way I want. I don't want to waste my time polishing paragraphs (or even whole scenes!) that could end up getting cut, later. 

Instead, I focus on making sure the changes work on a structural level. And while I may read through different sections as I go through and make changes, I don't force myself to do a close line-level read at this stage. Especially since any little continuity errors I might found will likely be caught by my editor in the next round and I know I have a close read coming up later. 

Line Edits

Once the story is locked into place and we move onto line edits, this is where I let myself get precious and care about things like word choice and sentence flow and getting really picky with those kinds of choices. 

I typically break line edits into three steps:

1 - I go through the document and address all the edits and notes left by my editor. I'll often use the "jump to next change" function of track changes to make this faster rather than trying to skim-read as I go.

2 - Once I've addressed all my editor's notes, I go through the document using the "find" function to search for overused words, my personal crutch phrases, and filler words. Developmental editor Melissa (@herbookologist on IG) has a great list of qualifier words you can trim from your manuscript. You can check that out here.

3 - Finally, I go back to the beginning and read the entire manuscript from beginning-to-end in as few sessions as possible. I let this be my chance to fiddle with language while I also check for any inconsistencies that were introduced during all the dev edit changes.

I use my computer's built-in text-to-voice accessibility function so I can listen to the story as I follow along in the pages. This helps me catch errors, typos, and awkward sentences so much more effectively than reading it myself.

If you don't do well listening to the book, this is where some authors will print out the book or change the font or stick it on an eReader to change up the way it looks for a more accurate read through.

Copyedits

Since I already did my close read through at the line edit stage, when copy edits show up, I just go through and review all the changes/notes the copy editor made.

You can learn more about how I tackle copy edits here. 

I do NOT do another full read at this stage. Instead, I trust that I did a thorough job when I did my line edits. 

However, if you find yourself in a position where you're doing bigger story things at the line edit stage (or you simply don't have time with your deadline to do a close read through before the book is due back to your edit) you can also save the close read for copy edits instead. 

Pass Pages

I've done this a few different ways over the years, but my current process is to have the computer read the book aloud to me again as I check for typos and errors. Sometimes, when the book shifts from the word document to the formatted PDF, weird mistakes get added during that process, so it's nice to double-check that everything is the way you wanted it.

And while this hasn't happened to me, I've heard from more than one author whose copyedits weren't appropriately incorporated into the typeset document, which is another good reason to do a full read through at this stage.

To make this last full read feel less tedious, I also use this as a chance to take screenshots of any quotes I might want to use for marketing purposes.

Because of the way I've focused my editorial efforts up until this point, this is only the 2nd or 3rd time I've ever done a deep read through of the whole thing at once, which means I'm typically not horrifically sick of the book yet.  

Again, I acknowledge that this process may not work for everyone. 

I know for some authors, language choice and sentence rhythm is a huge part of the whole point of writing for them, so the whole "saving that part for line edits" is a big ol' NOPE for them. Your mileage may vary!

But I do recommend getting clear for yourself what the purpose of each type of edit is for you and when you want to do your read throughs. (It really doesn't have to be after every single edit, I promise! Unless you like that and don't hate your book by pass pages.)
 

 
Final Thoughts

That's it! Those are my top three writing-process-related skills that I believe are essential for authors to develop as part of creating a sustainable, burnout-free career.

I'd love to know your thoughts! Leave a comment below (or DM me on Instagram) to let me know which of these three skills feels the most relevant for you right now.

Happy writing,
Isabel 

PS - I currently have 2 spaces open for new private clients. Click here to learn more and schedule a time on my calendar to discuss your goals and how coaching can help. 

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