journalism

This Is What You’d Do If You Took Your Writing Seriuosly

/ Stuart Danker / 123 Comments

Woman biting a notebook

If you took writing seriously, your first instinct would’ve been to click on this post to tell me I spelt my title wrong. Awesome job. That’s what a serious writer would do.

But don’t feel left out if you didn’t, because you’re here, and that means you’re awesome either way.

Besides, writing is more than being the grammar police, am I right? It’s not just about being keen with the language. You’ll also need to approach it from a crafter’s perspective rather than an artist’s.

That’s why I’ve always enjoyed Ann Patchett’s book on the craft titled The Getaway Car. You don’t see it brought up often, especially when compared to the usual suspects such as Stephen King’s On Writing or Anne Lamott’s Bird By Bird, but boy is it filled with tons of crafting wisdom.

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This Is Why You Will Never Write Like Me (And Why You Shouldn’t)

/ Stuart Danker / 125 Comments

A woman sitting in front of few laptops with a red glowing VR headset on her head

I don’t know exactly when I made the transition from regular writer to a consultant of sorts, but I’m thankful for the messages I’ve been getting. Most being questions on how they too can write for a living.

And the more I listen to to their dreams and circumstances, the more I realise something—that I’m not the best person to give advice, even if I were to continue writing professionally for another decade.

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Want To Sell Words For Money? These Are Your Possible Paths.

/ Stuart Danker / 72 Comments

Words For Money: Man in formal shirt

If you told me ten years ago that I could trade words for money, I’d have asked you to keep your ‘you can do anything’ speech to yourself.

Maybe it’s because I grew up without the internet, or maybe the industry was fraught with gatekeeping, but that’s probably why I’d stumbled from one bad career to another without giving writing a second thought.

It took going through multiple disasters before I finally took a chance in writing. And the rest, as they say, is history. Or was history. Shit, I sell words for a living and I still can’t choose between the two tenses.

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How My 15 Minutes Of Fame Didn’t Help My Writing (And Lessons Learned From ‘Being Famous’)

/ Stuart Danker / 99 Comments

Man in leather jacket and beard raising his hands

I remember back in 2019 when I was drafting my debut novel Tinhead City, KL, and I had this brief thought of how cool it would be to be featured on my local radio station (Business FM).

I knew that the radio station had a ton of shows on literature and the local arts scene, and it was a passing fancy to one day be interviewed for my book.

Pretty ambitious, if you ask me. I hadn’t even passed the 20,000-word mark yet.

But you know what? That dream would come true in 2021, and what it’d teach me isn’t the fact that interviews are so much worse when you’re on the receiving end of it (I used to be the one doing the interviewing), but that nobody really cares that you made the news.

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8 Non-Writing Skills You Shouldn’t Forget As A Writer

/ Stuart Danker / 92 Comments

Post It note that says 'Don't Forget', on a desk with mouse and keyboard

Finally, a post about writing that doesn’t involve actual writing. It’s a relief, isn’t it?

I mean, you can’t blame me for touting writing so often. It’s a given if you’re ever going to succeed as a writer.

But the dangers of taking ‘just write’ too seriously could be getting literary tunnel vision, and tunnels of any kind can be detrimental to our craft.

So what should you be doing other than putting words on paper then? Let’s start with the most important one.

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