20 Writing Lessons I Learned In My Twenties
I turned thirty last week. Here are some of the lessons I learned about writing over the last decade. Plus, a professional update and...an oatmeal recipe?
Hello, and happy March! While it’s not officially spring yet, it certainly feels like it here in Michigan. The sun is shining, I ran errands without a coat the other day, and there are even birds singing beyond my window as I write this newsletter! Birds! I’m already day-dreaming about all the gardening I’ll do this summer.
But we’re not there yet. And while I do feel a bit like a bear slowly awakening from hibernation — or like a skeleton preparing to reanimate — I’ve still got a lot of work to do before I get to enjoy my first month off deadline since September.
So get comfy, grab yourself a cup of something tasty (I’ve got coffee instead of tea, which should tell you a lot about my current state) and let’s catch up!
What’s in this newsletter?
20 writing lessons I learned over the last decade
Writing updates
What I’m up to
What I’ve loved lately
A lazy peanut butter protein oatmeal “recipe”? (I truly mean “recipe” in the lightest sense…because, well it’s oatmeal...)
20 Writing Lessons I Learned In My Twenties
I turned thirty last week, and despite being on double-deadline, sick, and a very stressful nine-hour episode where my cat went missing (he’s home, he’s fine, he’s already trying to get out again, the little asshole), most of my birthday was spent feeling pretty grateful about how much my life has changed for the better over the last decade.
I’m a big fan of journaling, so I spent some time the morning of my birthday on a writing exercise that started as “thirty things I learned my thirties” and ballooned well beyond that. I realized about half of them were related to writing and publishing, which isn’t a surprise, so I’ve put some of my favorite writing ones here! (Some of the publishing ones are too cranky to share…but maybe a version of that can come in the future.)
I learned a lot about writing over the last decade.
Here are the twenty of the lessons I feel like had the biggest impact:
If you want to write professionally, you have to read.
If you want to write well, you have to read widely.
Finish things. You'll get so much better by taking ten projects to 80% perfect than one project to 100%. (Although in revision, I definitely try to get them in the high 90’s.)
Writing is like a muscle. Train the habit of doing it frequently, even when you don’t want to. (Especially when you don’t want to.)
You need other hobbies. If you can, find something that gets you outside.
Keep an id list. Don’t be afraid to fill drafts with all the weird, specific things you love — someone else out there will love it, too.
It can be helpful to develop rituals that signal to your brain “it’s time to write!” but it’s even more helpful when these rituals are easily transported. I love a candle, but I can’t light one on a plane!
Every book will make you feel stupid at some point, whether it’s your first or your tenth. The only difference is you start to recognize you’ve been here before
Most of the good stuff comes from revision. Like. 95% of it. Learn it, love it, live in it.
If someone “just needs to make it to page 50 for the story to get good”, you haven’t done your job.
Outlining is a skill, and it’s a skill worth learning.
Starting your story from pitch is also a skill — and is really worth learning if you want to do this professionally.
No one will care about your work as much as you do. Ever. Use that as your superpower, but don’t let it make you bitter.
Speaking of valid…there’s always a reason people love something. That giant commercial hit you roll your eyes at has something to teach you. Study it — and then do it better.
If you’re stuck, go for a long walk.
If a trusted critique partner/editor/agent/etc is telling you to change something, their solution is probably wrong, but their instinct something needs to be fixed is probably right.
Taking care of your health on deadline, however you can, will improve the quality of your work and your ability to get back to said work faster. I know, I know. But it's easier to recover from deadline if you didn't burn your life down while on it! Eating well and moving your body has a direct (good) impact on your brain. Sorry!
Never take your ability to write for granted. Ever. Literacy is a gift you can lose in a blink — and not everyone gets it back. Your ability to read and write puts you rare company. Appreciate it.
You have to love it.
Writing Updates
I’m now only on one deadline! Huzzah! (She says crawling across the floor in tears.)
Please no one ever let me do this to myself again. (I will try. This is both a cry for help and a warning.)
A few days ago, I turned in the first draft of what will be my next middle grade, Milo and the Monstrous Betwixt.
I always type “the end” at the end of a first draft (right before I promptly delete it) because it really does encapsulate that crossing the finish line feeling, and this one felt extra special, because I’ve been dreaming of this ending for seven years! I talked more about it in my last newsletter, but I first attempted to write Milo in 2018 and shelved it because something wasn’t working. Last year, I went back to it, redid it, and sold it to Simon & Schuster! I’m so excited for this book to come out next year.
That leaves me with just one deadline left: the sequel to I Killed The King!
KING2 is due next Monday, and Andrea and I are currently barreling toward the finish line. We’re feeling pretty good about it! It is weird to be writing a sequel before the first book is even out…but we’ve been delighted that as early copies have made their way out, friends seem to be…enjoying…themselves.
Even though parts of KING2 are a mess, I’m having so much fun wrapping up this world Andrea and I created years ago. And I am so excited to see how readers react to I Killed The King!
I’ve also got some professional news: I have new representation!
I’m now represented by Stuti Telidevara and Pete Knapp of the Park Fine & Brower agency. They’ll be championing the kidlit you know me for, but I actually signed with them for an adult fantasy!
This is my first proper venture into adult, and while I’ve poked at this story for years, it didn’t come together until the summer of 2023 when I left my day job and promptly collapsed for a month of burnt out and video games. And yes, for those wondering – this is indeed the WIP I’ve dubbed “Zelda Book” in previously newsletters. When I had my call with Stuti and Pete, they said a bunch of lovely, thoughtful things about this project that made me feel they were the perfect fit for my books, but when Stuti asked “Okay, I have to ask . . . are you by chance a Zelda fan?” I knew this story had found the perfect home!
It’s always such a delight when someone immediately clocks the origin-inspiration-point in my work. And while this project is very much it’s own thing, I hope my feelings about the crushing existential horror of the Triforce cycle deep and abiding love for the Zelda games definitely comes through!
There’s not much I can share yet, so instead, I leave you with these:
What I’m Up To
Double-deadlines for the last month means that’s pretty much all I’ve been up to, but I did have a chance to moderate the launch for The Wildest Things last month by my dear friend (and I Killed The King co-author!) Andrea Hannah!
If you’re craving an eerie, gorgeous-and-gross YA fantasy that’s basically “Wilder Girls meets Snow White, when Snow Whites never get gets kissed and instead wakes up twenty years late to Everything Being Screwed Up” you can grab The Wildest Things wherever books are sold.
March will be the first month off deadline for me since September (!!!) but it’ll hardly be a slow month; while I plan to sneak in some time to garden, clean my house, and reset my life, I’m also entering the “oh god we’re getting married soon” danger zone and will be playing catch up in March.
What I’ve Loved Lately
February was dedicated to making, not consuming, with the exception all the beautiful art I keep stumbling across on Tumblr. I am very excited for the rest of March to be a mega-refill-the-well month.
Reading: My book club read The Ornithologist's Field Guide To Love by India Holton, which I quite enjoyed. I was also lucky to read an early copy of Alix Harrow’s The Everlasting which was incredible. That one will be haunting me for a while. And, of course, I loved reading the final version of The Wildest Things!
Watching: My outie has no chill about how much she loves Severance. My outie is very concerned about what she’s going to do after March. My outie is once again saying you absolutely need to watch Severance. (I also randomly watched Crazy Stupid Love, which I hadn’t seen since high school, and I maintain that it’s perfect. But mostly, all I want to do is think, talk, and read theories about Severance.)
Looking forward to: Fields of Mistria, a game I have fully fallen in love with, has a massive update planned for March 10th, and I’ve been counting down the days! I also need to get my garden started ASAP before the Fool’s Spring turns into an actual spring.
Lazy Protein Oats
Okay, I wasn’t actually going to put a recipe in here this month because I don’t want to commit to that being a Thing, but given that I posted the below oatmeal on my story and received so many “WHAT DID YOU DO TO THAT YOGURT?!” messages (how do so many of you have such an eagle eye for doctored yogurt??), I feel the oats must be immortalized.
I’m on a quest. This quest involves finding recipes that are healthy, easy, and filling, because that’s the only thing that keeps me alive when on deadline, and unfortunately, getting older means I am really embodying lesson #18 from the above list.
I never fully trust that the “amazing” “protein-hack” meal that fitness influencers come up with, but I also always so desperately want them to be right. And sometimes, though they have betrayed me, the gym-fluencers come through.
It turns out if you whip PBfit peanut butter powder into vanilla greek yogurt, the end result basically tastes like a creamy peanut butter dessert. And because I am a Breakfast Enthusiast and lover of all things resembling a sweet treat, it didn’t take me long to figure out this was the easiest, laziest (non-meat-or-egg!) high-protein breakfast I could whip together. The portion I make is typically about ~40g of protein which seems purely ridiculous, but also keeps me full enough that I can’t distracted every ten minutes while drafting the morning away.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup milk
vanilla greek of your choice yogurt (I go for the Oikos triple zero. Also, I love yogurt, so I do a giant dollop of about 150 grams, but you might be happier with a smaller amount.)
2 tablespoons of PBfit (or more! the world is your peanut butter oyster!)
Salt, vanilla, and cinnamon
Mixed berries, preferably thawed the day before (I just keep a container in the fridge)
Instructions:
Cook the oats on the stove with the milk, adding in salt, vanilla extract, and cinnamon, until the oats have gelled together.
While oats cook, portion out greek yogurt and mix in PBfit. Whip together.
Put oats in bowl. Top with yogurt and berries. Ta-da! Oatmeal.
News & Updates
ICYMI, we revealed the cover for I Killed The King last month, and it is utterly gorgeous!
I hear print ARCs will be available soon…so keep an eye out for giveaways. If you want a signed and personalized copy, you can also get a copy through our local indie, Sidetrack Bookshop.
That’s all for this month. Reality is blurring together as we enter the final days of getting the KING sequel over the line….wish me luck!
Happy March!
-Becca
Happy 30th! Also in the ‘95 club and turning 30 here soon. Loved reading through this and there are so many valuable tidbits in here to take with me on my own writing journey. I hope 30 treats you kindly ❤️
You had me at “thirty!” Fellow thirty year old writer 🤭