100 Things You Should Know About Writing (Part 2)

37) Why It's Better to Write It Yourself (and How)

This is going to be a rather unpopular section yet again. (Yes, I notice which ones get glossed over. I watch all my sections with an eagle eye.)

The thing is that I started writing 100 Things to help new writers. Which means that I'll point things out about writing even if it's not the consensus opinion on Wattpad.

And today, I'm writing about people asking others to write scenes they "can't write".

This includes, in my opinion, getting a co-writer. See, I often ask people why they want a co-writer and more often than not, it's because the writer doesn't feel confident to get a story done.

My problem isn't with co-written works themselves. I know a few people who co-wrote novels, and I have a story pipe-lined with another writer with whom I enjoy writing. It has nothing to do with getting the story done, though. The story will eventually get done, but I didn't ask a writer to co-write a book with me because I don't think I could finish the story myself.

Which is all basically to say that: If you want to co-write with someone, knock yourself out. But for your own interests, I'm begging you to make sure you're doing it for the right reasons.

Because when it comes to bringing ideas to creation, only you can write it the way you want it written.

For the love of all that is holy. Don't start me on ghost writers. I know a few writers who moonlight as ghost writers, but the practice of hiring ghost writers because you don't feel like writing yourself but want the glory of it yourself sucks.

But I digress.

My point is that if you have an awesome idea with awesome characters, no one else will do the idea justice the way you will. Because no one else cares for your idea the way you do.

The problem with co-writing.

Of the people I know that have co-written works successfully, they have one thing in common. They created the story together. And by this I mean the whole story. They co-created the concept. The characters. The plot. Everything. Yes, some of them then split things up and let their respective parts of their story develop organically, but for the story to be any good, there needs to be constant input from the other writer.

You creating a story and losing steam, then getting another writer in as "help" basically shoots your own story in the foot.

Inviting other people to actively write a story with you means that you have to start trading in your vision in order to have the other writer stick around. People differ. Opinions differ. And invariably, the co-writers will differ from yours on key issues. Which is when the story you wanted no longer possible to write.

But what about just having someone write one or two scenes that I can't write?

Seems harmless, right? But think about it this way.

If you don't like violence, why the hell would you try to write a violent story? If you don't like the thought of sex scenes, don't write the sort of romance where the readers would expect to see sex scenes.

If you're doing the violence and sex because it's what the audience wants, I'm going to say one thing and one thing only:

STOP PANDERING, YOU FOOL!

Write what you'd like to read. There will be an audience out there who thinks your violence- and sex-free story is wonderful for no other reason than exactly because it's violence and sex-free.

But if you would like to read a story with sex and/or violence and you have such scenes coming up in your writing, it's time to put on your big boy/girl pants and write the damn scenes yourself.

You owe it to yourself, to your story, to do every part of it justice. I know there's a twisted place in you that says you can't write well enough to actually pull off challenging scenes. We all have that place. We all doubt out abilities.

The only way to prove ourselves wrong is by writing the scenes we're scared of writing.

In fact, do yourself a favor. If you don't feel confident writing sex scenes, the best thing to do is get a pen and paper and write a million practice scenes. Write scenes with every detail out on the page. Write scenes that fade to black on certain details. Write scenes that lead right up to the sex and fade out. Write scenes with every single emotional context and scenario possible.

Write every single scenario you can think of, even when it has absolutely nothing to do with your story.

The same with violence or whatever else.

If you're worried about people seeing these embarrassing efforts, go burn them afterwards.

The idea here is to overcome your uncertainty about a scene. To get used to what it is that you need to do. If you've proven to yourself that you can write much worse and much better when it doesn't have to do with your story, writing something pretty run of the mill but that's specific to your story becomes much less intimidating. Also, practice is always a good idea when it comes to writing.

Most importantly, though. If you do this to get over your insecurity, you'll become a better writer for it, and your books will have scenes that all flow perfectly naturally with the rest of your story. Unlike having to beg someone else to write something that will feel and look spliced in because that's exactly what had happened to your story. 

Thanks for reading, all!

As always, please do ask questions about this section or anything else about writing. If your question inspires me to write another section, I'll dedicate it to you.

Coming up in 100 Things:

Likeable and Relateable Characters

Mixing Fantasy and Reality (MarissatheMarvelous)

Using Flashbacks (MarissatheMarvelous)

What Does It Take to Be a Good Writer? (MarissatheMarvelous)