All the Writing Advice You’ll Ever Need
By Jim Dempsey | September 13, 2022 |
It seems obvious that writers would write about writing. Elizabeth Gilbert, Patricia Highsmith, Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, Annie Dillard are among the many well known authors who have written about writing. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is my personal favorite. They seem to take that old adage of “write what you know” quite literally (more on that later).
I see it as a sign of generosity; people who have achieved a level of success sharing their knowledge in that hope that it helps someone else.
And we’ve all sign snippets of their advice in our social media feeds. That profound sounding sentence or two (sometimes taken out of context), pasted onto an attractive background and dispensed into the world for others to make of it what they will.
I’ve done it. My favorite is from Mark Twain:
“Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”
But, yes, as an editor, I suppose I would pick something like that.
Inspirational stuff
And I’m not saying we shouldn’t post these fragments of guidance. They truly can be inspiring, especially if you just happen to get the right one at exactly the right time, the one that really speaks to you in the moment.
But they can’t all be right, can they?
Twain, for example, is credited with first saying, “Write what you know.” To which Gore Vidal said:
“‘Write what you know’ will always be excellent advice for those who ought not to write at all.”
That is (not uncharacteristically) harsh. The “write what you know” maxim has since been rubbished by more than Mr. Vidal, but it is perhaps more misunderstood than incorrect. It doesn’t mean that everything you write has to be biographical. I’m sure Mark Twain intended it to be taken more that you should write something that only you could write. Neil Gaiman explains it perfectly:
“The one thing you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.”
Edit what you have
Another common piece of writing advice is to write every day. I’m not sure who said that first, but the author Jodi Picoult has this to say:
“You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.”
Note that she’s not specifically advocating writing every day, but she does have a point that writing something is better than nothing.. However, having a goal to write every day doesn’t work for everyone. You might miss one day, then promise to catch up tomorrow. Life gets in the way and you don’t, so you resolve to write three days’ worth the next day. Something else comes up and you can’t complete your goal. For some people, that can invoke a sense of failure or even stress to write so many words in a single day to catch up.
For other writers, they have to give themselves that aim of writing every day, maybe at a set time every morning, otherwise they never manage to get any writing done at all.
Personally, I like Lauren Tarshis’s point on this:
“Writing is a craft that you can learn by practicing. If you keep writing, you will improve.”
Many sources
Not all writing advice comes from those well known books by famous authors. Often it comes from interviews, articles or—obviously—from websites, including our own, supportive community here at WriterUnboxed.
Jane Friedman’s blog is another I’d recommend. Recently, the copywriter Alexander Lewis gave the following piece of advice in a guest post, which later turned up in my Instagram feed:
“I have no doubt that you can type much faster than you can write by hand. That’s exactly why you should write by hand.”
Many of the great writers wrote by hand. They would then type out their notes on old style typewriters. If you then want to revise a section typed out this way, it often means retyping the whole page, maybe even a few pages, or a whole lot. That gave a few good opportunities to rewrite. And, as that other well worn piece of writing advice states, “writing is rewriting.”
But does that really mean you should write by hand? For me personally, I’m much faster writing by hand than I am even after all these years of hammering keyboards with my two index fingers. Typing—if I can call it that—like this is precisely what slows me down and gives me time to think (maybe that slower pace suits my brain better too 😊).
I get that the point is to slow down. But if you type fast, maybe then you can retype fast too and, as long as your manuscript goes through those careful revisions, does it really matter how much time that takes?
It all goes back to the fact that there is so much advice on writing, and it doesn’t all say the same thing. These great authors were not all following the same path. They just explain what works for them. Maybe one of them has a process that works for you. Maybe you cherry pick advice from all of them.
As you progress as an author, your method will probably change too, or the next book will require a very different process from the one you followed for the last book. The important thing is to find your own way of writing, the method that works for you and that works for you at this time, for this book.
I’ll leave you with this one final piece of writing advice, from playwright Lillian Hellman:
“If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don’t listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.”
What are your favorite books on writing by well known authors? What’s the best advice you’ve seen? How has writing advice helped you?
Jim Dempsey (he/him) is a book editor who specializes in detailed analysis and editing of novel manuscripts through his company, Novel Gazing. He has worked as an editor for more than 20 years. He has a master’s degree in creative writing and is a professional member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading and is a trustee of the Arkbound Foundation. Jim is fascinated by the similarities between fiction and psychotherapy, since both investigate the human condition, the things that make us uniquely human. He explores this at The Fiction Therapist website. If you have a specific concern with your novel, send an email to jim [at] thefictiontherapist.com, or visit the website to ask for a free sample edit. You can follow Jim on Instagram @the_fiction_therapist.
Hi Jim: Great post. I agree there is so much writing advice out there and so much of it is conflicting. An editor once advised me to “find my own personal writing path” because that is the one that will produce the best stories. She recommended “trusting the story” to reveal itself through the characters as they speak and act on the page. This is a rather organic way of writing, letting the story grow on each page instead of manipulating the action or plotline by using preconceived plans or outlines. Your thoughts on organic writing?
I like the idea of writing organically, of “trusting” the story. The thing is that it can then mean more rewriting, but maybe I have trust issues 😊. A lot of writers try to “find” their characters through exercises before getting into the full mansucript, such as writing letters from the characters. Again, I think it comes down to whatever works for you, and certainly worth trying at least once.
Jim, is there a good example of a professional writer who is a self-identified “pantster” AND has written such a book? (Clearly I’m ignoring your comment prompt and hope you might indulge me anyway.) I definitely prefer the term “organic writing,” as pantster is really nothing other than another form of judgment on what is best, has value. Thank you for the thought-provoking read this morning!
Stephen King’s “On Writing” is written by a pantser.
Thanks for this fun and helpful article, Jim.
Thanks for this piece on advice and its nuances. The best advice I ever got: write what interests you (not what you know necessarily). And it has served me well.
I have quite the collection of writing books and they all seem to have arrived at the perfect time in my life. The first writing book I ever bought was Bird by Bird by Anne Lammott because I was scribbling stories in my biochemistry notebook and wasn’t sure why I was so compelled to do it. A couple of years later when I started writing in earnest (I quit working to stay home with my babies) I bought some craft books. I think these ought to come a bit later after one has already established a writing habit. Too much advice too soon can stop a person from writing because they wonder if they’re doing it right. My favorites now are more on the writing life and how to maintain it–Right to Write by Julia Cameron; Word Work by Bruce Holland Rogers; What About the Baby by Alice McDermott; Gifts from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. I consider them my friends and mentors in this writing journey. What a blessing!
I agree, Vijaya, that it’s not always helpful for people just starting writing to read a lot of books on craft. It can lead to prescriptive, formulaic writing if they try to fit in everything the books says, exactly as the book says. Sometimes it’s better to find your “voice” first, then get advice from the books.
The best writing advice I ever received came about by using the opposite of that advice. I told my writing teacher at the time that I was “enjoying’ crafting a piece. I was. I loved the research, the discovery, and the delving into my world and characters. The *Master* informed me that I must be doing something *damn (*substituting for very) wrong because *actual writing* was NOT enjoyable. I remember catching my breath and being shocked, followed by a realization. I would never be one of this *Master’s real writers* and that was okay with me. To be fair to the *Master* I even enjoy the elements of my stories that move me to tears and pain and sometimes haunt me. Should we have started with our definition of *enjoy”? I have a motto I found online, attributed to Picasso. “Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.” It works for me.
That Picasso line is perfect, Bernadette. I hope you will continue to enjoy breaking those rules, even if that enjoyment brings tears and pain. Thank you.
Damn good advice!
“However, having a goal to write every day doesn’t work for everyone. You might miss one day, then promise to catch up tomorrow. Life gets in the way and you don’t, so you resolve to write three days’ worth the next day. Something else comes up and you can’t complete your goal. For some people, that can invoke a sense of failure or even stress to write so many words in a single day to catch up.”
Oof, wow, did you watch some footage of my 20s or what?
Such a great post, and captures in a nutshell what I think many of us spend the early part of our writing journey learning: That we do indeed have to try out and then cherry-pick different things, until we find the right set of tools/habits that works best for us. (Or for a specific project.)
If we all followed the simple (which is not easy) advice in Jim’s essay today, it’s really all we need to succeed as writers. As a writing coach, teacher, editor, author for over 30 years, I’ve noticed that writers succeed who keep the love of writing foremost. They understand that forming a habit of writing is necessary for sustained practice, and only practice over time will build the skill that leads to the best possible writing any of us can do.
My fave of yours so far. I love reading about writing, and I agree that if you read long enough, you’ll be given conflicting advice. For me, the nut here is, “The one thing you have that nobody else has is you.”
Always loved the Twain quote; it’s damn good. He also said: “Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but a cabbage with a college education.”
As such a cabbage, I too admire Bird by Bird, as well as some other celebrated lights: Steven King, On Writing, William Zinnser’s On Writing Well (King and Zinnser should have collaborated with “On Writing Well With Others”), Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones. All good, with different perspectives and flavors.
But as Steinbeck said, “The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business.”
All the usual suspects: Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, Steven King’s On Writing and Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones are all inspirational and a joy to read. But I need motivation to keep writing, not because I don’t love it – I do – but because my day job and life get in the way. And I’m a procrastinator. So writing with a Zoom accountability group in the morning (in my case, Shut Up & Write) gets me started on the right foot, and I can take it from there. For me, the beauty is that there is a SU&W group every day, it’s free, and there’s no pressure. If I can make it I sign up and if I can’t, there’s always another one.
Thanks for the reminder that there’s no right way.
Great tips ! Writing in an art and artist are born not created.
This quote resonates with me: “Writing is the painting of the voice.” – Voltaire
Hi Jim: Superb post. I agree that there is a tonne of contradicting writing advice out there. I once received the advice from an editor to “discover my own personal writing route” because it will lead to the best stories. She advised “trusting the plot” to emerge through the dialogue and actions of the characters as they appear on the page. By allowing the tale develop naturally on each page rather than controlling the action or storyline by utilising predetermined ideas or outlines, this method of writing is considered to be more organic.
My current favourite of yours. I enjoy reading about writing, and I concur that you will find contradictory advice if you read enough. “The one thing you have that nobody else has is you” strikes me as the crux of this situation.