The Most Important Part of Writing ~ @AuthorKristina Knight

Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash

If you read many ‘how to’ type of posts you’ll find a lot of different answers to the question ‘what is the most important part of writing’.

This is one of those posts, but it’s also not one of those posts.

For me, the most important part of writing is simply to write.

On any given day, there are about a thousand things that crop up that I’m not ready for. Whether it’s my daughter coming home from school with marker on her shirt from art class, or my husband calling to say he won’t be home for dinner, which also means I’m on homework duty. To having a non-fiction assignment come up. To having first round edits and final read-through documents come in from my editors on the same day.

And all of those things can seem, in the moment, to be more important that getting the two or three thousand words on paper that I’ve set for my goal.

What I’ve found, though, is that putting off the writing has a snowball effect. Because the next day not only do I still need to write those words, I also need to write the current day’s words. And there are more last minute emergencies to deal with: like learning my mother-in-law is coming over for dinner, and that I have to fill out an art fact sheet for my cover designer, and I have blog and promo posts to write for my upcoming book release, and I haven’t updated my social media sites in too many days. And. And. And and and and and.

That’s why, no matter what else I have going on, what other items are on my to-do list, what little emergencies have come up that day, at 1 PM every day, I’m at my computer. Writing the new words. The emergencies wait. The to-do list waits. The new words get written, and then I go back to the errands and emergencies and to-do list items. Because if the new words aren’t on the paper, I can’t edit them. If I can’t edit them, I can’t turn them in to my agent or editor. If I can’t turn them in, I can’t perfect them. If I can’t perfect them (at least as much as I can perfect them), I can’t publish them to share with readers.

What about you? What is the most important part of writing, for you?

Kristina Knight's latest release, Moonlight Match, is available now! 

Moonlight Match is part of the Resort to Romance continuity project ~ 10 sweet romances, all set during a week-long matchmaking event in the Bahamas! 

Aster Harrington believes in love but love doesn’t seem to believe in her. She’s hoping Goldie and Ginny, the matchmakers who’ve matched on two generations of Harringtons, can work a little love magic for her…

Some call Ethan Talbot rigid, but he prefers to think of himself as prepared. Unfortunately, when he’s matched with Aster Harrington at Joy Island’s Matchmaking Week, all those carefully prepared plans go out the window. He can get back to finding a suitable wife once he’s home in New York. After all, how much damage can one week in the Bahamas do to his plans?

Kristina Knight is a contemporary romance author, part-time TKD-kid wrangler, and full-time Thin Mints enthusiast. You can find out more about Kristina and her books on her website. To get even closer, stalk follow her on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

You Name It I Write It by Jenny Gardiner

I am definitely a crazy mixed-up kid when it comes to what I write. Perhaps it's because I started out as a writer, which isn't always the case with authors. I studied journalism and minored in broadcast news, worked in newspaper, radio and TV, and then as a publicist.

So even before I started writing books, I was all over the place. And even now, I'm always writing and pitching stories for newspapers, magazines, radio programming, and online sites. Sort of Whack-A-Mole publishing, that's me. In some ways that has held me in good stead, but in others it sort of feeds a kind of ADD writing, where focusing on one thing, versus covering all bases and then some, might be a good idea.

For years I would just write the book I wanted to write at the time I wanted to write it. Which led me to writing a novel that was a cross between humorous women's fiction and chick lit. Then a novel that was women's fiction. Then a memoir. Then came some rom/com, one ill-conceived dabble in very steamy romance that came about as a result of a writing challenge. Next I put together a collection of essays, contributed to an anthology about dogs, then some more women's fiction, even 2/3 of a vampire novel (written as a joke), I have a brilliant mystery series, and well, it goes on from there. My last full-length novel that I wrote but didn't publish is serious commercial women's fiction (although it is dead to the world right now, perhaps to be resurrected some day if I get the energy to figure out how to fix it).

Years ago I was at a conference talking with my friend Marie Force. This was before the onset of digital publishing, just on the cusp of it. We were both with some publishing houses, me with my foray of all-over-the-place writing, and her with her romance novels, with which she was wisely building up a group of readers who eagerly awaited her next novel. Both of us were quite frustrated with the publishing climate as it existed back then.

"Did you ever think that maybe you should concentrate on one genre?" Marie asked me.

Huh. I hadn't really considered that, to be honest. I sort of proudly wore that "write what I want to write when I want to write it" badge, hoping for the best.

Fast forward a good handful of years. Both of us got into digital publishing in the early days, me with some terrific early success, though a subsequent hiatus from publishing was a really bad plan, but that is what it is. And Marie has sold tens of millions of romance novels and now runs a publishing empire.

And finally I decided I did indeed need focus on one thing and go from there. Which is why now I've been writing and publishing a rom/com series called It's Reigning Men. And I've got an eye to my next series that I can't wait to start writing (although I'm still having a lot of fun with this one so not sure when I can get around to that).

The fact is, Marie was right: I needed to stick with the program and find an audience who would come along with my books. Which is how I started writing my current series. The great upside is that I've had a lot of fun delving into world-building and jet-setting my characters all over the world.

Now I need to to get rid of the myriad distractions that are keeping me from finishing book four in this series and I'll be good to go!

PS today is the last day that SOMETHING IN THE HEIR is on sale everywhere! Only 99 cents through today!

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Some advice for writers

Lately my life has been a bit crazy thanks to a big move from New Zealand to Australia, doing some workshops and getting revisions done on one book and copy-edits on another, so when it came to thinking of a blog topic, my mind went blank (well, okay it didn't go blank but all it could conjure up was images of chocolate).

So like many writers before me, in my hour of need I turned to Twitter and asked what I should write about. Anyway, Catherine Haines (Kiwi writer, blogger and all around awesomely cool person) said this:








So Catherine, this is for you!

Find your voice

Voice is one of those strange things that we often ignore when really it's the thing what will help your books stand out in a crowded market. So don’t be afraid to write the story the way you ‘really’ want to write it as opposed to how you think you should write it.


I say this because for six years I kept coming up with all these weird paranormal romance ideas, but because I was trying to write regular romance novels, I would carefully cut the paranormal elements out of each book (I really wish I was kidding about this but I’m not). However, when I finally had the idea of a dead girl who gets kicked out of heaven and sent back to earth in a guy’s body, I realized that there was NO way I could cut it all out, so instead I finally embraced the voice that I had been trying to stifle for so long and I wrote the book in all of its glorious weirdness. It was called You Had Me at Halo and not only did it finally help me get an agent but I also got a book deal two weeks after it went out on submission.




Take risks

If you want to get published you have to send your work out to agents and editors because as a rule they won't come looking for you. Yes it's scary and yes there is a good chance (a very, very good chance) that they will reject you. However, while rejections suck, they are also the stuff that good writers are made of. If you're lucky enough to get a personal rejection then you can take what they are saying and apply it to your writing. If you are only getting standard rejections then use them to motivate you to improve your craft.

And I know this sounds really obvious but over the years I've lost count of the number of amazing writers I've met who are too scared to send their work out (of course it's hidden under the guise of 'it's no good/I'm too busy/it's not where I see my writing career as going' excuses). Please, don't be that person. Take risks with your writing. Put yourself on the line and send your work out. Let the market help you learn your craft.

Have fun

So much of writing can be hard work. Especially when it comes to dealing with rejection, but there is a reason why we all wanted to become writers so try not to lose track of what that reason is. Especially since there is a certain freedom in being an unpublished writer. You're not tied to deadlines or editorial revisions or genres (or all the delightful head-games that can go along with this stuff).

And finally...

It goes without saying but eat lots of chocolate. It might not make you write a better book, but I’m sure it will make you feel better!!

Amanda Ashby has been ignoring her own advice for years but despite herself she still manages to write young adult and middle-grade books for Puffin (US). Her latest book, Fairy Bad Day is now available and is full of action, romance and lots and lots of Skittles! To find out more you can visit her at her website or twitter!