Finish your stories instead of writing something good

Writing can be difficult, especially when it comes to finding your voice, creating a world, building characters and structuring a plot. Carving a path for yourself and finding the way is a challenge, but luckily there are generous, bestselling authors who are willing to share their advice.

Little Shop of Stories, 133 E Court Square, Decatur, Ga., co-owned by Dave Shallenberger and Diane Capriolla, regularly brings in authors and illustrators for community events. The bookstore itself is a wonderland of bright yellow and has an ever-expanding mural of pennies on the ground you can donate to, and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves stocked with the latest in bestselling and local authors. In an upstairs loft, they host story times, book launch events and Q&As with authors, both local and those on national tours.

Their most recent guest was Marie Lu. The bestselling author of the “Legend” trilogy stopped by the bookstore Jan. 18 to promote her latest novel, “Batman: Nightwalkers.” The novel, which is part of the DC Comics young adult series “DC Icons” examines an as-of-yet unexplored timeline for the caped-crusader — his teenage years.

Lu offered insight on adapting an existing character into her own story and general writing tips for those who might be struggling. “I grew up on ‘Batman: The Animated Series.’ That was my first exposure to, not just Batman, but any superhero. I’ve watched all the Batman movies; I love the [Christopher] Nolan ones,”

With “Nightwalker,” Lu had the opportunity to craft her own narrative for teenage Bruce Wayne before he became Batman. However, Lu said she struggled with getting Wayne, who she adored so much from the brooding protagonist in early versions of the novel, to the well-rounded teenage Batman that exists in “Nightwalker.”

“In the first draft, he was so unlikeable. My agent read it and said, ‘No one is going to like him.’ So we had to think about how Bruce must’ve been as a teenager. Like he must have had trust issues,” Lu joked. “I had to make sure he knew what it was like to make mistakes and the consequences of that.”

Being a young adult (YA) author and an advocate for the inclusion of people of color and diversity in literature, Lu considers YA to be significant in a push for more inclusion and open-mindedness. “I like to think of YA as one of the most forward thinking categories,” Lu said. “More than anything else, I think YA pushes the envelope and challenges people. Especially in this day and age, I feel like YA has entered a new era of growth,” she said. “It’s always been a swiftly changing category, now I feel like it’s taken on this new weight of importance for people to talk about, you know, ‘what is privilege?’ and what are the issues facing people who are underrepresented? You know, what are the unbalances of power in our country?”

For aspiring authors, Lu had plenty of advice to share. “My usual answer is that I learned early on to finish my stories instead of writing something good. That was a huge turning point. And you don’t go back, you don’t edit, you just go and it’s going to be the worst writing ever and that’s OK.”

Lu said that she struggled with this during early drafts of “Nightwalker,” and stressed that quantity was more important than quality when starting out writing.

“Just get the words down,” Lu said. “Once you have something to work with, you can then go back and fix it and make it better. You can’t fix a blank page, so just get the words down then you can make it into what you want.”

Little Shop of Stories will be hosting illustrator/author duo Matt de la Peña and Loren Long to promote their new picture book “Love” on Jan. 29. No doubt, they will be able to give insight and advice to writers and illustrators alike.

In addition to book signings and Q&As with authors, Little Shop of Stories also offers a number of reading groups like “Grown-Up Graphic Novel,” “Guys Who Read” and “Not So YA.” So go out, support your local bookstores, and gain a little insight from authors in the business who are making it big.