Christopher Pike's Writing Advice

Chapter One: Work Hard at Your Writing

This may seem to be such obvious advice that I'm afraid many people will not take it seriously. Over the years I've been approached hundreds of times by people asking me to read their manuscripts. Almost without exception, while trying to talk me into reading their material, people will say: "Now it's a rough copy," or, "Never mind the typos," or, "The beginning is a little weak but then it gets going," or, "I haven't been able to get it edited yet so don't mind all the grammar mistakes."

And I think, Really? Then why are you giving it to me?

A beginning writer should never approach an agent or publisher with a rough draft. Before you begin to send out your manuscript, you should have bled over it. You should have done absolutely everything in your power to "fix it." You should have learned about grammar. You shouldn't have to hire an editor. You should have learned how to edit your own material. You should have fixed any weak chapters, especially if they're beginning chapters. Most editors and agents only read five pages of a book before deciding if they're going to keep on reading. Indeed, you're lucky if they read that many pages. The opening of your book has to be brilliant. I'm serious—it's got to blow people away.

Still, these are all technicalities. What's really throwing off so many aspiring writers is the fact that they've read about a handful of writers who have sat down after a dream or a sudden moment of inspiration and written a novel and sent it off to an agent—who immediately wanted to represent it— and then the book's sold for some huge sum before it finally appears in the market where it's an instant bestseller...

I think you get the point. Many people swear to me how hard they've worked on their book. And they're not necessarily lying; they may have put hundreds of hours into it. But very few of these people have been writing for years, days after day; and have gone through the experience of getting rejected for years.

Yet if you talk to most published authors, you'll find this is exactly what they went through before they got published—the infamous 10,000 hour rule. It's true—it generally takes 10,000 hours—if not 20,000 or 30,000 hours—of writing to get to the point where your natural talent emerges and you can tell a story in such a way that most people can't stop reading it. This I assuming you have talent. If you don't then I can't help you.

I took seven years to get published. I wrote every day during that time —from the ages of 21 to 28. I worked full-time as a house painter and then a computer programmer during those years. I needed those years to learn how to write. It's not because I was slow; it was because most people need that time. Even those handful of writers who immediately become bestselling novelists still need those years. Unfortunately, because success comes to them so quickly, it's rare that a bestselling novelist will realize that he or she needs a lot more seasoning.

Wanting to become a writer is an insane ambition. I discourage most people who approach me. I tell them what the odds are they'll make a living off of their books—less than one in ten thousand. Yet I know if a person is obsessed, the way I was obsessed, they will write anyway. Just when I got published I felt ready to quit. I wanted to. I was worn down by all the "No's." But I don't think I would have ever stopped, not really. It's ironic, the advice I'm giving right now. The people who need it won't listen to me. And the people who don't need it... they're probably already working hard on their books.

In either case, WORK HARD, is my first piece of advice.

Finally, because my publisher is on my back to sell my new book, I must add that STRANGE GIRL is coming out in three weeks, November 17th. Now there's a book I worked hard on. I wrote ten drafts before I was satisfied with it. In a few days Simon & Schuster will begin to post the first six chapters. I'll be happy to hear what you think of it. I'll even be happy to hear what flaws you can find in it. Writing is rewriting. If you can't take criticism, don't even think of becoming a writer. But that piece of advice is for another topic...

Yours, Christopher Pike