Writers’ Advice Sucks
That may seem like an incredibly stupid thing to say on a blog about writing, where the majority of posts are advice. In a way, it is. On the other hand, it’s very easy to forget that the vast majority of web sites giving advice to writers are built and maintained by people who only know a tiny bit more than their readers. Like any craft, there are some experts, but there are also loads of noobs.
It’s equally easy to read advice on writing sites and switch off our acceptance criteria, much like people reading a newspaper and accepting the information therein as fact. Active minds should not do this: question the advice and be sure it works for you, or you may damage your creativity. Personally, a lot of the advice doesn’t suit me at all.
For example, almost every writing site will tell you at least these things: write every day, don’t edit until it’s done, carry a notebook for ideas, write rather than think and set goals.
The first of these, “write every day“, is a contradiction to that other tenet of online advisors: that real writers are people who need to write. On the one hand, they’re saying that if you’re really a writer and not just some dumb schmuck pretending to be one, then you should be writing all the time. Then, on the other hand, they say you should begin a habit of writing every day. Surely this is unnecessary, since – being a real writer – it’s unusual for you to be doing anything else?
Personally, I could never force myself to write every day. I might do it anyway (and pretty much do), but making it a requirement would kill the fun entirely. It would become like a kind of religious penance for past sins of watching too many B-movies or something. I say write what you feel like, when you feel like it. Enjoy it.
“Don’t edit until it’s done” is another piece of advice I simply can’t take. I’m too much of a grammar Nazi. I re-read sentences while I’m typing and go back to alter them. This, however, is a very personal situation and a lot of people find that it blocks them from continuing. Only you know whether that’s the case: if it is, leave the editing for later.
As for the idea of carrying a notebook for ideas, well – that’s some good advice for people who work like that. It’s the same as making lists of things in a sort of ‘individual brainstorming’ activity: by jotting down everything that occurs to you, you remove the risk of forgetting it later, or it may lead to more ideas. Me? I’m a geek: I don’t use real-world paper. I don’t keep lists anywhere except in my head. I am a man-machine, a cyborg entity with 4Kb of memory. (No, I don’t use notebooks.)
My favorite advice is the next one. “Write rather than think.” This one is the biggest myth of all: the idea that not keeping ideas and turning them over in your head, trying to perfect them is a good thing. Let it all out. Just sit down and scribble, without any heed for what spews forth from the end of your pen (or fingers if you’re typing). Once it’s done, you can go back and see what you did, edit it and get something good for your efforts.
That may work for people on LSD, but it doesn’t for me. It ties in to the common view of authors as wildly creative, hippy-like beings, floating around in their silky skirts (or enormously flared corduroys) and magically creating profound utterances by the simple act of taking the lid off a pen. I have yet to meet someone like that, though I’d very much like to – even if it were just so I could be jealous (not of the flares).
Train-of-thought writing is very good advice for people who can do it. Many of us can’t and the important thing is not to feel bad about it. I have to turn things over in my head. The Prologue to one of my ongoing novel attempts took me a month to write, and it didn’t appear on (virtual) paper for the first three weeks. Why should I feel bad about that? It’s one of the best things I’ve ever written, in my own distorted opinion.
Setting goals is the last item on the list and is a difficult one. Many writers set themselves completely unrealistic goals – often deliberately, in an attempt to push themselves. I suppose the success of this activity depends on the way the individual works. Setting a huge, scary goal can indeed help by being very exciting and the feeling of success if the goal is achieved can be enormous. Choosing smaller goals provides less recompense, but can still be very important.
My concern with that advice is that it often doesn’t take into account that many writers are also mothers, husbands, full-time workers (or carers, in my case) and have a lot to do apart from sitting down quietly and focussing on their text. It’s good advice, in moderation.
All in all, the important thing to remember is that advice is just that: an opinion on activities that could possibly help you to improve your work. Keep your brain switched on, take it all with a pinch (or small continent) of salt and choose the things that work for you.
[Originally published on www.wordophilia.com]
