Advice From The World's Most Successful Writer

I will start this article off with the preface that the world's most successful author is subjective. 

When you take to the internet to find the answer it tells you Shakespeare, but since he did not set out to be an author and as revenge for the number of times I had to read his plays while completing first my English degree and then my Creative Writing degree - I'm excluding him based on the simple fact that I can.

So who do we next turn our eyes to on the list of the world's most successful authors?

None other than Agatha Christie, a British author of 85 books with an estimated 2–4 billion books sold. Though I will point out she is not the top for the world riches author, that title goes to another British author. Joanne Rowling. 

While most authors leave behind books or lengthy interviews in which they delve into advising new and seasoned writers alike, Agatha Christie only left behind her autobiography and her insights on writing, but from it, we can glean advice that all writers, new and practiced should take to heart.

Don't Try to Be Anyone Else When You Write

"If I could write like Elizabeth Bowen, Muriel Spark or Graham Greene, I should jump to high heaven with delight, but I know that I can't, and it would never occur to me to attempt to copy them. I have learnt that I am me, that I can do the things that, as one might put it, me can do, but I cannot do the things that me would like to do."

While these names might now mean much to you, a writer wanting to be like other writers is nothing new. The writers of today have this same sentiment but instead would list off authors' names just as Collen Hoover, Rebecca Yarros, or V.E. Schwab.

The best person a writer can be is themselves, there is someone else in that other pair of shoes. Trying to stick two feet in the same ones would just make it crowded. 

And why would you want to be anyone else when one day there might be a new writer saying I want to write like, (Insert your name here)

It Doesn't Matter Where You Write, Just That You Do

"I never had a definite place which was my room or where I retired specially to write. This has caused much trouble for me in the ensuing years, since whenever I had to receive an interviewer their first wish would always be to take a photograph of me at my work. 'Show me where you write your books.' 'Oh, anywhere.' 'But surely you have a place where you always work ?' But I hadn't. All I needed was a steady table and a typewriter."

Sure it's amazing if you have a dedicated space for writing where you can limit distractions and focus on the writing in front of you, but this isn't a luxury afforded to all writers. 

My first book was written half at my kitchen table and the other half on a bed. My laptop propped on my knees while my partner played some video game. 

You can write your book by hand in a notebook kept at your work desk, type it in the note app on your phone between classes, or have a writing desk that would make all writers on Instagram kneel in jealousy. 

Writing is personal to the writer, all that matters is that you write. 

What are you waiting for?

Go write. 

With love, 

B.K. xo xo

Want to write with me live? I'm now on Twitch! Come join me in some writing sprints most days at 10:00 pm EST

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