{"id":2090,"date":"2014-01-25T00:01:21","date_gmt":"2014-01-25T06:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/?p=2090"},"modified":"2014-01-26T10:36:35","modified_gmt":"2014-01-26T16:36:35","slug":"writers-toolkit-ignoring-expert-advice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/?p=2090","title":{"rendered":"Writer’s Toolkit: Ignoring Expert Advice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now this may sound ridiculous–why would a writer, especially a relatively inexperienced writer–ignore advice?\u00a0 Especially expert advice, perhaps advice from a writer he\/she admires?\u00a0\u00a0 Surely that’s exactly the advice to follow…isn’t it?<\/p>\n

Sometimes.\u00a0 And sometimes not.\u00a0\u00a0 Every writer has much to learn from other writers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But every writer also has much to not<\/em> learn from other writers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (Yes, a very deliberate split infinitive.)\u00a0 That’s because of the very nature of the writer’s connection to the writing.<\/p>\n

Most of us have seen derivative writing–have even done derivative writing.\u00a0 You fall in love with a certain writer, read everything they’ve written, and for the next six months or year or six years (depending on how much you write in that time)\u00a0 their writing permeates yours with its distinctive flavor.\u00a0\u00a0 You may even want to be “the next [name your ideal.]”\u00a0\u00a0 What you write is not the same (because your own creativity, though smothered, is trying to express itself) but anyone reading your work (or any other enthusiast-for-someone’s work) can detect the influence.<\/p>\n

If you read enough other writers, especially if you read widely across genres, historical periods, and (if you’re lucky) languages,\u00a0 and you’re also attempting to write your own stories,\u00a0 these influences will, like the carrots and garlic and beans and onions and celery in a stew gradually create a new flavor…your own authentic voice, as each element of each influence is picked up by your own talent and used to the degree that it can.\u00a0\u00a0 Your interests, your preferences, determine what you read (and thus what influences you pick up); your talent determines how those influences will emerge in your own work.\u00a0 This is how a writing talent develops naturally.<\/p>\n

But most of us (I include myself)\u00a0 start looking for a fast track at some point.\u00a0 We read books on writing.\u00a0 We take classes, or attend workshops, or join critique groups.\u00a0\u00a0 Disclaimer: There is nothing wrong with any of these.\u00a0 I’m not telling you to avoid them. \u00a0 I didn’t avoid them. \u00a0 But<\/em>. \u00a0 Classes, workshops, and critique groups are not a magical way to get past the amount of reading and writing that you need to do to become the writer you can be.\u00a0\u00a0 And.<\/em>\u00a0 All three of those will load you with advice, some of it expert advice,\u00a0 and some of which is 100% wrong…for you.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yet if a famous, best-selling, wealthy, or prize-winning writer–a writer you admire, a writer\/editor\/agent you agree is an expert hands down that advice…you may think you should follow it even if your own talent is tugging you another way.<\/p>\n

Yes, of course, it may be something other than your talent tugging you another way\u00a0 (“But I don’t WANT to go back and fix that structural problem in chapter five–I’d have to rewrite the whole !**! book!”)\u00a0 That’s why you should hear what the expert says–but not too many experts in a row–and think about it.\u00a0 Listen to your own voice.\u00a0\u00a0 Then take it or ignore it as you and your own voice decide.<\/p>\n

I’ve said before and will repeat it until everyone is\u00a0 tired of it:\u00a0 there is no one right way to write a story.\u00a0 There is no one right length for a story.\u00a0\u00a0 There is no speed (word count\/day) that’s the right one to ensure quality; you cannot tell from the work whether someone wrote that paragraph fast, in one swift rush, or slowly, struggling with each word or phrase.\u00a0\u00a0 Writers are individuals, and each writer has his\/her own way of telling the story.\u00a0 Kipling, remember<\/a>?\u00a0\u00a0 “And every single one of them is right<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

If the story works…if it raises the hairs on the reader’s arms, brings tears to the reader’s eyes, wrenches the reader’s guts,\u00a0 makes the reader laugh at the right places, then it does not matter if you follow anyone’s advice or not…you’re right.\u00a0 You’re right for that story.\u00a0 You’re telling your<\/em> story, in your own<\/em> voice, and it’s the truth as you know it.<\/p>\n

Does that mean all advice is wrong?\u00a0\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Much of the advice (not all of it) given to writers in classes, workshops, and critique groups is useful for nearly all writers most of the time.\u00a0\u00a0 But a lot of it is nonsense, and any particular piece of it may be nonsense for you in a particular sentence of your work.\u00a0\u00a0 Don’t use fancy words.\u00a0<\/em> (Right, like Shakespeare with “multitudinous seas incarnadine”??\u00a0 Only a few writers can handle tubs full of fancy words in one story, but maybe you’re one of those few.\u00a0 And anyone can handle a few of them.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You should start with short stories and perfect your craft on them before trying a novel.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>(Not if you’re a natural novelist, like me…I spent 20+ years trying to write short stories, unsuccessfully.\u00a0\u00a0 If your talent is long form,\u00a0 go for it.)\u00a0\u00a0 Don’t write [genre, length, style, character type…] but instead write [genre, length, style, character type…]\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>(Raise hands, everyone who thinks Tolkein was advised to write very long, very unusual-at-the-time fantasy…right.\u00a0 Not.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Or that Stephen King was told “You should start a whole new category as a horror writer.”\u00a0\u00a0 Writers succeed as themselves, not as market-bots, obediently following someone else’s idea of what they should write.)<\/p>\n

Why does that work?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Because the best writing anyone can do is connected to the writer’s reality–the writer’s real experiences, real beliefs, real self.\u00a0\u00a0 The one thing writers have is their own unique, individual self and its voice–everyone has that much, but writers also have the will and the ability to bring that self and voice out as words.\u00a0\u00a0 Composers may do that in music, and painters may do that in paint, and sculptors in clay or marble or bronze…but writers do it in words.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ability is partly inborn and partly the result of practice–the reading and the writing\u00a0 provide the language skills and within language skills the particular writing skills, so the written language feels natural to the reader.\u00a0\u00a0 Will, however, is the desire that allows the writer to focus on his\/her own work…do it without looking over the shoulder to see if it fits every bit of advice ever heard.<\/p>\n

Back in ninth grade, when I was first really stretching as a juvie writer, I experimented with things I’d read in various books.\u00a0 Like incomplete sentences.\u00a0\u00a0 Punctuation*!! innovation+& Fun wiTh uPPr & LoweR case & spelink. \u00a0 After all, I was reading a lot of SF, and a lot of SF from back then messed with language, devising new vocabularies and spellings and…whee!\u00a0\u00a0 My very wise English teacher called me in one day and–without forbidding anything I was trying–said that I should have a reason for breaking rules, be able to state the reason, and the reason should be clear to the reader.\u00a0\u00a0 Also, assignments in class should be correct in grammar and spelling, which she knew I knew,\u00a0 as an example to the kids in class who weren’t as good at it.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On my own time,\u00a0 I could write any way I wanted to, and she’d be glad to look at it.\u00a0\u00a0 Mrs. Doty, you were a jewel!\u00a0\u00a0 She didn’t tell me not to write science fiction (others did) or adventure stories (ditto) or not to use long words…just the right kind of insistence that, at my stage, practice in standard English was required.<\/p>\n

“Every single one of them is right.<\/em>”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You–if you’re working toward being a writer–have something no one else has–a unique viewpoint, a unique voice , and a unique gift to the world when you have read enough and written enough and lived enough to focus and let your story and voice come out in all its individuality.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s not accomplished by trying<\/em> to be different,\u00a0 or creative, or unique, but by being who you are, naturally, without strain, having absorbed all you can from others, and then…ignoring what doesn’t work for you…using everything in you to release your talent.<\/p>\n

So as you read, and as you write, and particularly when you feel overwhelmed with conflicting advice from multiple classes, workshops, critique group members, blog posts,\u00a0 editors, agents, anyone at all….you don’t have to swallow everything.\u00a0\u00a0 Ignore what doesn’t work for you.\u00a0 If you need it later, you can go back and try it.\u00a0\u00a0 Ignore me<\/em>, and my<\/em> advice,\u00a0 if what I’ve said just doesn’t click for you.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Being able to shut out what doesn’t work–what holds you back–and ignore expert advice that’s wrong for you–is an important tool in your kit.\u00a0 Earplugs for the writer-brain.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now this may sound ridiculous–why would a writer, especially a relatively inexperienced writer–ignore advice?\u00a0 Especially expert advice, perhaps advice from a writer he\/she admires?\u00a0\u00a0 Surely that’s exactly the advice to follow…isn’t it? Sometimes.\u00a0 And sometimes not.\u00a0\u00a0 Every writer has much to learn from other writers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But every writer also has much to not learn from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[62],"class_list":["post-2090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-craft","tag-craft-of-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2090"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2095,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090\/revisions\/2095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}