• Start the story from the very beginning
• Your Friends and Family are not Your Target Market
• “Once upon a time” is a perfect way to start a story
• Write Every Short Story You Think Of
• Write in Your Genre

Today, we’re discussing advice I’d give to my younger author self. Hello. My name is Nadi Abdi. I’m the author of Power of the People: the Demon Cleaner, book one. I’ve been writing since I was a child. I’ve taken the long path, many detours on my way to author success. While I’m still building my career, here are some things I wish I would have understood when I was much younger. Not even a child. I would take, late teens early 20s. Even back then, these bits of writing advice would have made my life much easier today. Here we go!

Start the Story from the Beginning

First, start the story from the beginning. From the very beginning. From the very, very, very beginning. That was the advice given to me about 10 years ago or so. I was already two novels into this series, working on the third when one of my writing friends who was on path to be an editor noted that the core problem in the first story was that it was just too much for a first novel. There were too many characters. Too many character types. Too many concepts that didn’t get enough time and attention to be properly explained to the reader. I needed to back up. Slow the story down. And go from there. In 20 years of writing, it was the most useful tip I had received. I wished one of the many people in my circle that I’d had read the story would have told me that.

I initially envisioned the first novel being more like a movie and relevant details were told via flashbacks. It didn’t work. And I actually had gotten a review on that first novel. The reader was like, “I don’t understand what’s happening. And I tried so hard.” So, I was like, shit, lemme rethink this. I looked at the pieces of the story I had to see where the beginning should be. Once I had that, that’s where I started. But this whole process could’ve been done a good 20/30 years ago and saved me a lot of time today.

Your Friends and Family are not Your Target Market

I’ve recently been reading a lot of books on marketing and writing as a business. One of the things I read is that your friends and family aren’t necessarily your target audience, and that’s ok. And thinking about it, that’s really true. It was a complete stranger on the Internet who told me what I needed to hear most because that person was into what I was writing and was invested in having a good reading experience. Meanwhile, the people around me were either not into it or they had read so many different versions that they’d lost interest. 

Also, not everyone does reviews. Not everyone does proper reviews. You’re asking your friends and family to read your work. You’re hoping they give you feedback you can work with. Instead, you get, “It was ok,” or “It was great! I loved it!” Or worse, silence. None of these actually help you as a writer who’s trying to work on your craft, who’s trying to prepare for publication. You want to hear your strengths and weaknesses. Did they almost DNF? Did they DNF? At what point and why? These are conversations about your work that are productive. 

This is where you gotta join writing circles, find an editor, find ARC readers, people outside your personal circle who know how to review and critique and will help build you as a writer and improve your work. Outside of that is probably a waste of time.

Once Upon a Time is not Childish

“Once upon a time” is a perfect way to start a story. You know what’s crazy and makes no sense? Being a fantasy author, a fantasy consumer, being in love with the whole fantasy genre, being influenced by major names in fantasy (and horror and sci fi), then deciding that “Once upon a time” is too childish a way to start a story. I have a lot of really good friends and family who love me, but some of the things I think and do I swear would have you thinking I have no good friends. Don’t blame my people. I spend more time in silence than I should.

Anyway, “Once upon a time” is not childish. And since I got over that hang up, it’s been so much easier to get my ideas out on paper. Procrastination is still an issue. I’m working on that. But since I started starting stories that way, I have filled whole notebooks. One story I wrote has “once upon a time” at the start of each segment to note restart points. I don’t start every story that way, but it’s no longer something that hinders me.

Write Every Short Story You Think Of

In that same vein, the last thing I’d tell my younger writer self is to write all the short stories that I think of. There was a long period of about a decade, maybe even two, where I just didn’t think I had any “real” or “serious” story in me beyond the Demon Cleaner series. Mind you, I grew up on Star Wars, Star Trek, and Lord of the Rings. I don’t know what was wrong with me during this time. I am deeply sorry to myself. I was like, “I need to write more like Sylvia Plath.” I can quote more Harry Potter than I can Plath.

I come up with short story ideas as easily as I breathe. It’s a skill I should have tapped into and cultivated more. But I couldn’t see a future in it. I kept reading how there was no money in short stories. “No one wants to read short stories.” It was practically a mantra all over the internet. It shouldn’t have mattered. Frankly, most writers don’t make much money anyway. I was focused on the wrong thing. Now, I’m trying to play catchup, only just realizing I also have AdHd. Dying over here is what I’m doing. “Everyday I’m suffering!!” 

I would have hundreds of stories by now had I put into practice then what I am now. 

Write in Your Genre

I wasted a lot of time thinking I should be a writer that was outside of my actual sphere of influence, outside of the type of work that I most often interacted with, and was most aligned with. As an undergrad, I would be up until 2, 3 in the morning with my friends playing Hero Clix and watching anime. But I thought I was going to be the next Toni Morrison, and not Mary Shelley. Which in retrospect makes zero sense.

I like fantasy and sci-fi. I watch fantasy and sci-fi. I read fantasy and sci-fi. When I write, the stories that come to me the easiest are fantasy and sci-fi. First draft is a hot ass mess because I’m a pantser, but it’s a mess I understand. And you can’t put a price on that kind of peace.

I’m Nadi Abdi, author of Power of the People: The Demon Cleaner book one. And this is my blog on writing, publishing, and other lit biz shit. Follow my blog or follow my Substack for Demon Cleaner short stories and updates.