Category: Columns

Hello Hattie

A long-term client has an eight-year-old granddaughter who wants to be a writer “just like Grandma”. My client asked me to give this young aspirant some advice about writing. I didn’t want to; I couldn’t think of the last time I’d talked with an eight-year-old – 20 years ago? Of course, I couldn’t say no–I ‘m very fond of this client – so I gritted my teeth and pulled up a blank page. I didn’t want even a note of condescension in this–she’d see through that like the Emperor’s clothes – so I carefully launched into the usual stuff like ‘write what you know’. I surprised myself at what came out.

Hello Hattie,

I think it’s wonderful that you want to be a writer. There’s no time like the present, so you’d best get started. The more you write, the better those words will be. Just like pull ups for your biceps or crunches for the abs, your brain is a muscle and it needs constant sweaty workouts to become the kind of buff story machine every reader wants to read. You got a story in your head? Get it down on paper – just sit down and let it rip. No one but you needs to see these early attempts – not until you’re ready to share – so there’s no shame here. It’s all about trying and doing and then trying and doing all over again. It won’t be long before you start to feel as one with this process of putting ideas and thoughts on paper in a way that reads like a story.

The most common advice to writers is to “write what you know”. Don’t think you know much yet? I’d say you do. You know what it’s like to be a smaller person in a world with a lot of really big people who seem to have lots of rules about what you’re supposed to do and you know how you really feel about some of those rules. Write about that. You know what it’s like to be one of the shortest people at the zoo where getting up close to the animals can be challenging. Write about that. You know what it’s like to be in a group of classmates during recess; you know what goes on amongst you on the playground. Oh yes, write about that.

Best of all though, you have your imagination and you know what’s in there. If it’s an imaginary world only you see and know what goes on there, get it down on paper and see where that takes your story. It can be life in outer space or under sea or in a world that you’ve built yourself. You see, you really do know a lot. Start writing about those things your imagination has crafted.

And read read read. If you love a story then ask yourself why, what made this tale touch you so deeply, how did the author present the beginning, the middle and the end in such a great way? And learn from those writers. Pay attention to how a particularly fantastic character is described, how the words tell you this is a character you will always love or always fear or want to run laughing from. Build you story telling skills by learning from the masters. After all, that’s how they learned much of the craft of writing. Never stop reading.

And never stop writing. I look forward to your first publication.

I’ve printed it out, signed in red ink and put it in a hand addressed envelope. I used a very pretty frog stamp. I’ll put it in the post tomorrow. This young lady may not long remember my advice but I’m betting she doesn’t forget her first snail mail letter.