Everybody Has Advice for Writers

I believe I’ve heard it all. Be aware that anything listed below is from my limited experience. Advice in the second list works for someone, just not me.

Some advice that usually works for me:

1. Always leave your work mid-sentence, and the next day finishing that sentence will start the flow again.
2. Remember in medias res to start a scene.
3. Write whatever feels important and know you’ll have to cut most of it later.
4. Don’t deliberately follow trends.
5. Use Scrivener or some other writing software, or else spend more time organizing than writing.
6. Make a writing schedule and stick to it.
7. Don’t get feedback on ideas–they’re too fragile.
8. Get feedback when you have confidence in what you’ve written.
9. Work on more than one project at a time but give priority to one of them.
10. Make a lot of mistakes and don’t correct them until the second or third draft.
11. Good characters write their own dialogue. If they’re not talking, ask them what the problem is.
12. Make an outline if it helps. Be aware that you may decide not to follow it.
13. Knowing what doesn’t work is progress. Deleting is progress.
14. Read your work aloud, or have it read to you.
15. Use music, or other props, to maintain the mood of what you’re writing.
16. Write what you want to read because you’ll never please every reader.
17. Appreciate and respect feedback but remember that you make the final decisions.

Some advice that does NOT work for me:

1. Make a word count goal every day.
2. Write for a certain amount of time every day.
3. Research your genre and write for its “requirements”.
4. Read a lot of books that are similar to what you want to write.
5. Write first thing every morning.
6. Edit as you go.
7. Always write with a type of reader in mind.
8. Write drunk; edit sober.
9. Write in silence.
10. Share your ideas. If no one likes them, don’t bother moving forward with them.

I know writers who will defend the advice I reject. My reasons are mostly related to my personal quirkiness than anything debatable.

Daily word counts and timed sessions remind me of school. I don’t care to be reminded.

Researching genre requirements and reading books that may be similar to mine suggest I should compare my work to others’, when my concern is to tell the story I want to tell. I don’t need the distraction while I’m in the process of writing it.

First thing in the morning? I’m not a morning person. My brain works evenings and nights.

Editing while writing is tempting but It’s frustrating. I need the satisfaction of a very flawed, but complete first draft before the chopping begins.

Writing with a reader in mind is speculating on something I can’t control.

Alcohol is not my friend. I’m too old to start that up again.

Silence? I’d fall asleep.

Sharing ideas sounds dangerous. Someone could shoot down a good idea before the concept develops into something worthwhile. I’ll keep my ideas private.

Care to give me more advice or argue with my lists? Comments are welcome.