A panel of six New York Times bestselling authors shared their tips for writing a winning book at Salt Lake Comic Con FanX on Saturday in a session called, “On Magic & Manuscripts: Ask a NY Times Bestselling Author.”
The panelists, which included Sherrilyn Kenyan, Dan Wells, Tracy Hickman, Kathryn Purdie, Jennifer Nielsen, and Larry Correia, discussed their writing process, believing in themselves and their work when no one else does, and dealing with rejection, among other topics.
Wells, author of "I Am Not a Serial Killer" which was made into a movie last year, currently lives in North Salt Lake with his wife and six kids. He told the Deseret News in January he always wanted to be a writer since he was a child, when his parents would let him cross the street to The Sprague Library in Sugar House almost every day.
Each of the authors introduced themselves and their journey to the NYT bestselling list before taking questions from the audience. Questions ranged from how to know when you have a good idea for a story — to how to get published and have your work seen by others.
Here are 36 writing tips from the bestselling authors at Saturday’s panel in Salt Lake City.
How do you know when your idea for a book is any good?
“I think it’s all in the execution. Any idea could be terrible or it could be awesome. And how do you know? You have to write it. And then you look at it when you’re done and think, ‘Yup, this is as good as I thought it was going to be.’” - Dan Wells
“If you’re entertained, then hopefully other people will be too.” - Sherrilyn Kenyan
“There are lots of real good books out there built on stupid premises. It’s all about the execution. If you make it awesome and you make it fun, then people are going to like it.” - Larry Correia
“Every author believes that they are not good enough. We all of us have angst. It wasn’t until … I think late last year I decided I could actually be an author, but what’s important is not whether your writing is good. What’s important is whether you learn from your writing. What I always try to remember when I finish or start a book is that I have not yet written my best work. The next thing I write is going to be better than the last thing I write.” - Tracy Hickman
How do you get publishers to take you seriously?
"No matter what you do, some people aren’t going to take you seriously. Period. I’m still not a real writer.” - Larry Correia
“You have to understand there will be times in your career where you are literally the only person who believes in you, and you have to be okay with that … Until you respect yourself as a writer, there is no point in asking other people to give you respect or take you seriously.” - Jennifer Nielsen
“You should never write for free. You should always exchange your writing for something, even if its an email address or a contact on a list because today publishing is changing. A publisher today expects you to bring an audience with you. It’s no longer about being published, it’s also about bringing an audience.” - Tracy Hickman
“I am on a Comic Con panel wearing Captain America pajamas, so taking yourself seriously means something different than it does in other careers.” - Dan Wells
How do you find an editor or agent in order to get published?
“It’s not easy. There is a pretty high rejection rate in this business … but don’t let that get you down, because most of those people suck, and you’re awesome.” - Larry Correia
How many times do you re-write your books?
“The book I’m publishing next month has about 3 words that are in the original.” - Jennifer Nielsen
“Art is never going to be perfect. You just have to keep working to the best manuscript you can get.” - Jennifer Nielsen
“You know you are done when you can’t make it better, just different” - Jennifer Nielsen
What’s your process for writing dialogue?
“Don’t dialogue based on how you really talk … Just make it fun, make it interesting. Find people that you think write good dialogue, and read it. Watch it and try to understand why it’s so interesting and then learn from that” - Larry Correia
“Do away with all the pleasantries and get to the meat of it.” - Kathryn Purdie
“Sometimes it helps to just read it out loud.” - Tracy Hickman
How do you deal with rejection?
“Don’t let rejections get you down because they happen to everyone and happen to the best of us ... This is the only work I know of where people expect their first work to be successful.” - Dan Wells
“There is no wasted writing. It all works to making it better.” - Jennifer Nielsen
“Tell yourself this — always keep a submission in the mail. So you get a rejection? The same day you send a new query letter out. It keeps your hope flowing.” - Jennifer Nielsen
“Getting a rejection is not a sign you’re not meant to break in. It makes you normal.” - Jennifer Nielsen
“After I had 6 bestsellers, I had 450 rejections in one year.” - Sherrilyn Kenyan
“A lot of times, it’s a matter of finding a fit because a lot of times you will submit something to a publishing house or editor, and it’s just not the right fit … sometimes they just don’t understand what it is you’re trying to do.” - Tracy Hickman
“Sometimes when you’re submitting a book, you’re not just looking to get it accepted, you’re also looking for a fit — with an agent, and an editor, or a publishing house.” - Tracy Hickman
How do I know if I’m on the right track with my work?
“You have to love what you’re writing to go through the brutal process of writing it.” - Kathryn Purdie
“There is no wasted writing. My first book was utter garbage. I wrote a book in college that was a joke … but years later I took out every cool part and I used it in other stuff. You’re only going to get better by doing it.” - Larry Correia
How do you create the plot?
“If its a character-driven book, I will outline less. If it’s a plot-driven book, I will outline like crazy.” - Kathryn Purdie
“There is not a right way or a wrong way.” - Kathryn Purdie
What is the most important thing you learned in the past year?
“Don’t forget to pay your taxes.” - Larry Correia
“Stay humble and just keep climbing and keep working on your skills. There is always the next mountain to climb.” - Jennifer Nielsen
“It was hard for me to feel exposed and vulnerable while I was trying to create.” - Kathryn Purdie
How do you create dynamic characters?
“Emotion is shared. I don’t have to understand the rage of somebody who is about to kill another person in order to write it. I understand anger, and I can draw from those same roots. I understand happiness, and I understand jealousy.” - Jennifer Nielsen
“Even if our character’s experiences are vastly different, we always have emotion in common, and we can write from there very believably.” - Jennifer Nielsen
“You just have to write a lot of characters, and the more you do that, the better you will get at writing characters.” - Dan Wells
“You need to go out and interact with people and live a life.” - Kathryn Purdie
“I will cast the characters in the book after film characters that I have seen or actors that I have seen. It gives me something visual to lock onto, some presence I can use. Not to say that I write that, but it gives me some kind of form or substance I can hang on to.” - Tracy Hickman
“I usually give each of the characters a secret, a secret that no one else knows.” - Kathryn Purdie
“You have to decide. I am in charge. I am the author. Do I force this character to be what it needs to be, or do I adapt?” - Dan Wells
Brittany Binowski is a senior web producer for Deseret National. You may contact her at bbinowski@deseretdigital.com or tweet her online @binowski.