I’d love to have bought my first five or six writing books (I don’t remember how many I bought last year – I’m still going through them! Three or four left to go!), and read bottom line advice: “Write this. Get published. Buy house in scenic location.”
Well, it just doesn’t work that way.
Alas, I’ve come to realize that – very often – the advice you get is conflicting.
Do detailed 30 page character bios. Don’t do detailed bios.
Conform to story structure. Don’t worry about structure.
Preplan it. Don’t pre-plan… wing it.
Write the book in 30 days, then edit for 90. Don’t worry about it – your book takes as long as it takes.
Write 1667 words a day. Write as many words a day as it takes.
If you’ve been serious about writing for more than a year or two, you know what I mean. Scott James has persuasive advice for just pant’sing a novel. K. M. Weiland has persuasive advice for excessively planning a novel.
Both approaches work.
My take away from Scott James – who is exceptionally persuasive – is that writing tools such as structure, outlines and bios are there to serve you.
This is why I said “Bruce Lee’s fighting method” also works for novel writing. You start with the dictum, “absorb that which is useful – discard the rest.“
If it leads you to write a good novel – do it. Share on XIf it doesn’t – no worries. ditch that advice.
If you break every bit of writing advice out there, and you get an agent who gets you published… Excellent! You can write your own book on writing advice!
Do what works for you. There’s your bottom line writing advice. Absorb that which is useful – discard the rest.
