Should I Stop Telling You What to Do?
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Recently, I was scrolling through Twitter (as I do several times a day) when I came across a post from either someone I follow or someone who had been liked, retweeted or commented on by someone I follow. (It’s hard to tell sometimes.) The poster essentially said that unless you were Stephen King or some other bestselling writer, then he didn’t think he should read or follow any advice you might have about writing. Most of the comments agreed with him. Some even thought that the only way to improve was to write more (but not to listen to advice on how they might be able to write better).
I have no problem with Stephen King. I have his book On Writing. I’ve read it. I don’t consider it a Bible on the craft. I’ve written and published two books on writing myself. I’m close to completing a third. I don’t consider any of them definitive guides on writing. (Obviously, if one of them was a Bible on writing, I’d be a lot more successful than I am now and I wouldn’t have needed to write the other two.) I have many books on writing. None of them render all other books on writing irrelevant.
It’s amazing, isn’t it, that an off-the-cuff comment by someone on Twitter (who could feasibly be the worst writer in the world) can make me doubt what I’ve spent almost my entire working life doing (and plenty of years before that). But suddenly I feel the need to justify and qualify the writing advice that I offer.
The Justifications
*I’ve been writing for more than thirty years.
*I’ve been reading for more than forty years. (Yes, I’m only forty-one as I write this but I started reading when I was eighteen months old and basically haven’t stopped since.)
*I have an Advanced Diploma (a two-year course of study now called an Associate Degree) in Professional Writing and Editing. I majored in novel writing, poetry and editing. I was taught by working writers, renowned poets and one of Australia’s most respected editing teachers.
*I have a master’s degree in writing, which means I can teach if I want to. (I don’t want to.)
*I also have a bachelor’s degree in history and international politics (yes, that’s three qualifications).
*I’ve written, edited and published three of my own books (and people have paid money to buy and read them).
*I’ve ghost-written, edited and published another.
*I’ve written three more books that will be published over the next few years.
*My second novel was shortlisted for the 2016 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Unpublished Manuscripts.
*I worked as a corporate writer for almost a decade (until I couldn’t stand in any longer even though I was begged to continue on – to this day, I am contacted by recruiters asking me to return to the field).
*I am the go-to person for everybody I have ever met who has a writing or editing question.
*In addition to my own writing, I freelance as a copy editor for a magazine as well as writing and editing marketing campaigns for several businesses.
The Qualifications
*My advice is a product of who I am as a writer. Therefore, it may be completely irrelevant to who you are as a writer.
*My advice is also a product of who I am as a reader. Again, this might make it completely irrelevant to who you are as a writer.
*Most of my advice is more like musing. I like to think through things and write down the process of my thinking, as well as any conclusions I come to.
*Two pieces of completely contradictory writing advice might be equally valid, especially when talking about different types of writing. Sometimes this is also true when talking about the exact same piece of writing.
*Nobody is under any pressure to accept my advice or implement it or do anything more than give me the courtesy of considering it, even if in the end you choose to disregard it.
*I want to be challenged. It’s how I keep learning. It’s why I keep reading the advice of other writers even though all those justifications above might suggest I could get away with not doing it.
*I’m not always right.
*You’re not always right.
*Nobody is always right, not even Stephen King.
*I’m not telling you what to do. I would hate for anyone to think that any of my advice should be followed word for word. What I’m doing is trying to get you to think about the writing choices you make. Because that’s what all writing is. Choices.
I hope you choose to continue reading my advice. And if you don’t, thanks for reading up to this point. But I’m not going to stop writing or offering advice. That’s my choice.
