Best Advice I Never Listened To: “Write Only When You Have Something to Say”

Advice, strangely enough, is never one size fits all. We’ve asked participants to share the best writing advice they never listened to. Today, Diane Homan, NaNoWriMo participant, shares what she learned from writing with abandon:

Once you tell someone you’re writing, you’ll be hit immediately with tons of “helpful” advice. People feel forced to share their tips with you, whether they’ve published six bestselling novels or they’re coasting on that one creative writing assignment in 8th grade that they got an A on.

In college, one of my professors introduced me to a quote by David Hare: “Write only when you have something to say.” This spoke to me. I adopted this as my writing motto. I was only going to write when I had a message to share with the world.

I would sit and wait for some sort of inspirational muse to hit me over the head with her magic wand so I could go, “Aha! I know exactly what I want to say! This writing stuff is easy!”

For years I did this. I only wrote when I already knew where the story was going. I tried to make every scene and every line of dialogue point to some great, grand theme.

And finally, after eight years of sporadic, muse-inspired writing, I woke up. I realized that in all that time, I had only written about 10,000 words. At that rate, I would never finish my novel.

So I rebelled. I signed up for NaNoWriMo in November 2015 and did the exact opposite of writing when I had something to say. I wrote every day, regardless of whether or not I knew where the story was going. I threw themes and morals and grand messages out the window.

It was like magic. I started saying “Why not?” and “I’ll just throw that in there and see what happens,” and my story found plots and subplots. It took shape even as I threw out my attempt to forcibly shape it. Twenty-seven days later, I had a completed 51,000 word first draft of my novel.

Writing is highly personal. Any advice you’re given is only good advice if it works for you. David Hare’s advice did not work for me. I discovered that my process is the exact opposite—I find what I have to say after I write it.

With that in mind, my new favorite writing advice is taken from that eminent intellectual, Ms. Frizzle of The Magic School Bus: “Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!” As with signed field trip permission forms, some writing rules and advice are made to be ignored.

Diane is a middle school teacher turned stay-at-home mom who writes in her spare time. She completed her first novel, Engell Gate, for NaNoWriMo 2015 and is working on revising it for publication. She loves reading and writing kidlit, particularly fantasy and sci-fi. Favorite authors include Terry Pratchett and Dave Barry. When not reading or writing, she can be found running around with her one-year-old, or blogging recipes and crafts over at her site Homan at Home.

Top photo by Flickr user FraserElliot.