How Writing Has Changed Over the Years

I have been an author a little over seven years now, but I’ve been a writer all my life. With three college degrees and working as a lawyer and college professor, I have had my share of writing—everything from term papers to legal briefs. And I find writing in an academic or professional setting is not vastly different from writing fiction. There has always been and always will be storytellers. Throughout history writers, sometimes faced with obstacles and often rejection, have been determined to get their story out. Whether on cave walls or parchment paper or on tracks of a hard drive. In all of it, you want to grab your readers attention. Entertain. Educate. 

As a reader, I know we look for fresh, innovative stories to settle down with. There is nothing better than being lost in the world of a good book.  But as the old adage tells us, there’s nothing new under the sun. There isn’t anything written now that hasn’t been written before. So, It is incumbent upon us writers to learn how to put a new spin on the stories that have already been told. How do we do that? I believe that it is the technology, lifestyle and attitudes of the times you’re writing in that is influential in the stories we tell. 

It is obvious how technology has changed writing. It is a change that has affected us all. How we write and prepare to write looks completely different than it did just twenty years ago. More than likely, words to that killer novel you’ve just picked up to read weren’t being banged out on a typewriter. But even with the advent of the word processer, a device that gives the ease of revising and dictating making the craft easier and faster, some writers still pen their stories longhand, at least initially. A tried and true age old practice. (Maybe some things never change?)

But when it comes to technology, it’s not only how we inscribe, but what we writers do to prepare. Research. Before we can put pen to paper, writers have to make sure we’ve got our facts right (yes, even when we’re writing fiction!). It used to be our research time was spent searching the stacks at the library, flipping through the shiny pages of the tomes of encyclopedia or enlisting the help of the reference librarian. Now, most of what we need can be accessed with a click of a mouse. 

Sometimes, the library couldn’t give you all you needed, and for some authors (those that could afford it or expensed by their publishers) there was the opportunity to travel. Authors traveled the world to learn about the people, cultures and settings they planned to write about. And not to say it isn’t still done, because it is (ah, to be so lucky), but it’s also true that writer no longer need to hop a plane to do their research. No, for that, nowadays there’s Google Earth and Wikipedia.  

Not too long ago, I wanted to include a hostel in my story. A cheap motel for itinerant travelers, I needed a character in my book went there to meet someone in secret. Per the story, the hostel was in located in Italy. Of course, not even sure how hostels worked and never traveling to that country, I had no point of reference of what one was like, especially one in a place nearly five thousand miles away.

I looked one up on the internet, got its history and amenities from the pages of Wiki, the “internet” encyclopedia. I found that in order for my character to get to the hostel, they could take public transportation—a train, and walk a few blocks. I switched to Google and typed in the address. And voila! I was there. It was really cool, I “walked” down an Italian street on Google Earth. I passed by window shops, noting street signs and satellite images of people “moving” along the street with me and was able to put all those things in my book. I even had my character stop at one of the coffee shops that was there and order from a menu I was able to see posted outside on the building. I was able to create a realistic experience for my readers and I saved air and hotel fare (which I couldn’t afford anyway) and got all the information I needed.

Changes in how we write and how we go about it isn’t all that has changed. Because of changes in language, thinking and acceptability, the “lifestyle” of the world has altered the “what” of what we write as well. The things we write about has expanded (or should I say “evolved”). The stories that are told—the ones readers want—are more complexed, inclusive and touch on subjects once thought inappropriate or even taboo. But as surely as the world turns, it changes. Just think back over your lifetime how different it is. Speak to a parent or grandparent. Because of our everchanging existence, writing has had to keep up to keep readers engaged.

But, I think the most important way writing has changed, isn’t how or what is written but who is writing. Writing, like the world, has taken on all of the challenges that surround us and it is being talked about and written by those affected. This attitude of inclusivity, diversity and fairness, I think, is thee biggest and the best change to writing. Women, authors of color and other marginalized writers are finally getting their voices and stories heard. 

Change may not be liked by all, but in the world of writing, I think change has made it better.

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Abby L. Vandiver, also writing as Abby Collette, is a hybrid author who has penned more than twenty-five books and short stories. She has hit both the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller list. Her latest cozy series, An Ice Cream Parlor Mystery, published by Penguin Berkley, is out now, with the second book, A Game of Thrones, coming in March 2021.

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