Some Good Writing Advice
January 15, 2009 by B J Keltz
Here’s the advice up front. The justification follows:
The only techniques and processes that work are the ones that work for YOU.
If you are like a host of other aspiring writers, you’ve done your share of internet searches on subjects related to writing and read some books. Chances are you’ve found your share of conflicting advice as well.
What works for one writer may not work for another. I wish there were easy answers, but cookie cutter techniques make for cookie cutter writers…not what any of us have in mind when we talk about voice and originality.
We are all possessed of common characteristics that become highly individualized by person. For example, there are logical minds and intuitive minds. There are step by step thinkers and conceptual thinkers. There are highly organized and structured processes just as there are more organic “growth” processes. Any of us can contain any combination of these characteristics. It seems the most polarized traits I have observed on the web are the conceptual versus linear thinkers.
There are a wide variety of opinions and philosophies out there. Many of them disagree. What is a new writer to do?
First, forget what anyone else says and just write. Develop the discipline to get a decent amount of words or pages produced every day. It takes a lot of words and a lot of days before you start seeing glimpses of your own voice and finding out what works for you and what doesn’t.
Second, pay attention to your process (the method by which you move from idea to capturing it on paper to fleshing it out into a final piece) and seek out techniques that work with and for you. As an example, one writer may find that Stephen King’s On Writing did little for them, but that Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing did. Another writer might resonate with Anne Lamott’s time with her blank screen. A third may find just what they needed to clarify thoughts in Ralph Wahlstrom’s The Tao of Writing. These are three very different authors with very different processes. Feel free to pick and choose what works for you.
You are an individual. So is every published author and writing instructor. While there is certainly something to be learned from every book you might read, some process and bits of advice will work better for you than others.
Please don’t let someone tell you that you must write the way they do or you are doing it wrong. Don’t let the organized structured writer tell you that writing by the seat of your pants is stupid if you happen to be a conceptual thinker. Likewise, if you are logic based and are more productive and comfortable with structure, don’t let an organic process writer tell you that you are stifling creativity.
The process that works for Sandra Brown is the one she uses. The process that works for J A Konrath is the one he continues. The process that will get you where you want to go is your own.
Never be afraid to explore and learn about other methods, techniques, and processes. Never be afraid to revamp your own if it isn’t working for you. And please don’t be afraid to take all writing advice with a grain of salt.
In order to define and develop your process, your voice, and your technique, you must write. You cannot read a few books and expect you know it all (of course!). These things develop over time and with practice. There aren’t a magical number of words you must reach before you arrive at the right combinations, but you will know when you get there by both your output and quality.
Let me rephrase the advice from the beginning of this article
Use what works for you. Gently become deaf to others who tell you their way is the only way to do it right.
“Writing does not come through teaching, but through learning.” The Tao of Writing
