The top writing tip for 2017 from twenty-five successfully published authors

I made a list of all my five star reads for 2016 – the best of the best! If you haven’t seen it yet and are looking for great books to read over the holidays, this is it:
http://www.tesswoods.com.au/bookclub/2016-ultimate-holiday-reading-guide
I then had the idea to ask the authors that I consider to be the best of the best to share their very best writing tip. So I asked them, “If you could give one piece of advice to a writer who's hoping to be published, what would you tell them?”
These wonderful authors all spoke from the heart. I hope you find comfort and inspiration in their tips and I wish you the very best of luck in the New Year. May your writing dreams come true in 2017!

Melanie Coles

Write for YOU. Seek advice, learn from other writers, join a writers group - whatever you can do to help improve your craft - but don't lose yourself in the process. Your voice is unique, so find it and let it shine through in your writing. And above all, write what you love.

Renee Conoulty

Finish the first draft before you start to edit and if you find you need to make a major change (like deciding to switch the whole book from 3rd person to 1st person halfway through the first draft like I did) make a few notes to yourself then keep writing as if you’ve already made the changes.

KJ Farnham

Never compare your output or progress with that of others. This may cause you to force yourself to write when your heart isn't in it. Write when inspiration strikes you, when your chest feels as though it will burst if you don't get the words out.

Sara Foster

Don't give up at the first hurdle! It's easy to make a plan then get frustrated if you can't stick to it, but plans can always be adjusted. Persevere and soon enough small chunks of writing will start to add up to something a lot bigger.

Anthea Hodgson

Talk to yourself.Allow yourself to be that super interesting person on the bus or in the coffee queue having a special chat to someone unseen by the naked eye. I’ve always done it (Sub-advice - don’t try it at high school - I’ve found it doesn’t go down super well with teenage girls - I believe they find it weird).
I have long chats with myself in the shower, in bed late at night when I can’t sleep, whilst on walks and while waiting for my kids to come out of class. I love dialogue and I love strong characters, and in my quiet moments I sit them down together and let them talk. It achieves a couple of things I really like;
It makes me laugh - I write a lot of my jokes this way;
It brings out the voice of my characters;
It brings out their relationships with each other - and if they don’t know each other, it brings out how they would relate if given the chance;
It gives me answers to questions about how they would respond to a situation or a question;
So - bring back the weird and just spend time talking to your characters - I know you’ll find they’ll have some amazing stories for you!
Merry Christmas - and I hope you have a wonderful and creative New Year!
Regards,
Anthea (and Cate, and Henry, and Ida, and Deirdre and Audrey…).

Lisa Ireland

Be authentic in everything you do – in your writing, your dealings with readers, and with other writers. That means writing the story of your heart, not what you think will sell. Be generous to readers (you don’t have a job without them!) and kind to other writers (there’s enough room for all of us.)

Jennie Jones

Let that writing flow! Whatever you have on the page is beginning to define you. This is power. No words written are wasted words whether we use those words or not.

Kylie Kaden

Write the things people are afraid to say. Readers yearn for honesty, so don't filter yourself. Your original voice, your unique perspective on things is the one thing that sets you apart from every other writer, so don't be afraid of it.

Juanita Kees

Never give up on your dream. Work hard, look for constructive critique and take it on board. And don't take rejections to heart, no matter how hard it is not to. It's all part of the journey.

Kate Kerrigan

Write - even just a little - every single day and never give up.

Natasha Lester

Enjoy the writing process. If you love what you do, it shows.

Maria Lewis

Have endurance. If you're an unpublished writer hoping to see their name on a shelf one day or a writer with a deal who knows the pub date is fast approaching, having endurance will help you endlessly. I'm talking emotional, physical and mental endurance as it is a long, heartbreaking process. From having the endurance to stay in love with your characters and story through the many drafts and edits, to having endurance once it's in book stores and you need to be continually talking about it and promoting it: remember the e-word.

Emily Madden

Even when all hope is gone and all seems lost, remember that what you're doing is NOT a waste of time, remember that all is NOT lost. Hope IS around the corner, hiding there, waiting to jump on you when you least expect. Beautiful things come from beyond the rainbow. 'Patience is a virtue' is not without merit.

Lily Malone

There is no shortcut to rewriting. Be ruthless. Think of editing like getting a new haircut. There are swathes of your story (long hair) that can be hacked off until you get some shape. Then you can edit (cut hair) with more finesse.

Jenn J McLeod

It doesn't have to be fiction! If you have a story to tell and a dream to see that story in book form know this... It's never too late to try.

Nicola Moriarty

Don't let criticism define you, don't let self-doubt consume you and write for you, write because it fills you with happiness and because you have a story that you simply have to tell.

Sunni Overend

Write what you enjoy writing and stop thinking about what others will think.

Alli Sinclair

There are never mistakes, only learnings: Every writer - whether it is their first book or twentieth and beyond - will hit a brick wall with their story. It doesn't happen with every manuscript, but occasionally the words will grind to a halt, no matter how well you plot a story (if you plot at all!). Whether it's a crisis of confidence or the realisation that the story isn't going in the direction it should, there's nothing wrong with taking time to reassess and, if need be, delete words in the thousands. This isn't a bad thing! Changing your story or characters does not mean you've made a mistake, it means that you have figured out what isn't working and this gives you the chance to rectify it. Every time this happens, you learn more about plot and character which ultimately makes you a stronger writer.

Rebecca Sparrow

No author writes gold from the get-go. Remember - those novels we buy have been through multiple drafts and edits. So cut yourself some slack and give yourself permission to write a terrible first draft. Just get the story down. The fixing comes later.
Also: Forget target audiences and publishers and editors and agents. Write the book YOU would love to read. Because in the end you're not a magical unicorn. If you love it, it's highly likely thousands of others will too.

Spiri Tsintziras

Dig deep and find what rings true for you. Keep writing for pleasure. Have faith. Eat lots of good food and keep your body moving so that it can release all those magic words!

Mae Wood

Don't be scared. Put down words as they come out and polish them later.

Here’s mine! - Tess Woods

All you need to do is write. That’s it. Just write. Write even if you feel like you don't know the first thing about writing , even if you've never met a writer, even if you think you have no right to be writing, even if you're afraid people will judge you if you say you're a writer. If you want to write, forget all that, forget social conventions of what a "real writer" is and just write. Write as much as you can whenever you can and when that story is written, go over it and over it and over it until you feel like you would rather face death by a thousand cuts than go over it again. And then go over it again. Because that's what makes you a writer. Nothing else.

Oh and one more thing from me, don’t call yourself an “aspiring” author in 2017. Leave that worthless word back in 2016. Someone who’s "aspiring" is still thinking about it but not actually doing anything about it (like I’m an aspiring dieter). Whether your work is published yet or not doesn’t matter. You wrote something. You authored it. You’re an author. End of story. Happy New Year!

Now I’ve saved for last what I think is THE best single piece of advice for any writer. My literary agent told me that the thing in my pitch letter that compelled her to read my manuscript was when I wrote that I’m a passionate reader. She said all the best writers are passionate readers. Over to you gorgeous Vanessa, Eliza and Rachael –

Vanessa Carnevale

Read a lot and read widely, but mostly, take notice of what you're reading, what moves you and what engages you. And above all, trust yourself, trust your characters, trust your voice, trust it all.

Eliza Henry-Jones

Read. Read everything - read memoir and kids and crime and fantasy. Because so often the sparks for new stories are found in the spaces of the ones you read. And there is no better way to develop your own voice than by listening to the voices of others.

Rachael Johns

READ. I think in our drive to fit in all the writing we can and work towards crafting our own stories, sometimes we forget what made us want to write in the first place. And usually that's a love of books and reading. We need to feed this passion because reading helps refill the well, it teaches us what we like and dislike in books and it also provides much needed relaxation. I fail dismally in my reading goals and that's one thing I'm going to work very hard on in 2017. I think reading and writing go hand in hand, so really if you want to write, you should be reading as much if not more than you are writing! x