Finish every manuscript you start. Set a word goal and meet it every single day. Show, don't tell. Don't use adverbs. Read everything in sight. Write what you know.
Any of that sound familiar? I'm pretty sure it does. These are respected tenets of the writing community. Their certainty is almost comforting, in a way.
Here's a nasty little secret - statistics mean nothing to the individual.
Most writing advice is well-meaning and comes from a good place. Obviously if you never finish a manuscript, it's at least 30% harder to sell your book. Reading a genre is unquestionably the best way to know what other readers are expecting.
But there are no absolutes. Not in writing, not in life.
Writers are passionate people and you will find folks all over the internet and the real world arguing vehemently for one side or the other on these and other issues. People will absolutely insist that vampire books are dead(heh), or self-publishing is a fool's game, or that you cannot use a prologue.
These people don't know you. These people don't know your book.
All too often I'll see writers asking for not just advice, but judgement - "Is this story idea a good one?" "Is it okay to talk about this topic?" "Is it alright to break genre convention in this instance?"
Folks, you are the pale moon and the golden sun of your writing world. Nobody else can tell you in certainty that a character or a plot or a book will or will not appeal to readers. If that were possible, we would all be bowing at the feet of Random Schuster Harper Disney and its one employee.
There's nothing wrong with taking advice. At least considering the advice of others is not just a good way to write, but a good way to live. There are limits, though. All things in moderation. The advice of other writers cannot write, edit, or save your book.
You are the master of your destiny. Accept no substitutes.
While I do appreciate certain writing/advice forums (that I won't mention by name), sometimes I feel like the members get waaaaaaaay into overthinking every little thing. The likes and dislikes of readers are so incredibly subjective (ha! adjective!), it barely (haHA!) makes sense to have a huge list of "rules". Now, there's nothing inherently (WOO!) wrong with wanting to tighten up one's prose, but sometimes I feel like those who are freaking out over every single little thing are just planting themselves into the category of "the more you're talking about your writing, the less you're actually writing".
ReplyDeletePrecisely! As much as we writers like to think that if we have no cliche metaphors or no typos that our books will succeed, the truth is that badly plotted and badly edited books DO sell sometimes. There is no magic ticket to success. The only thing you can do is write your book the best you can.
DeleteDown with rules! ^_^
ReplyDeleteFocusing on what to do and what not to do is exactly the opposite of what people should be doing when they sit down to write. It breaks my heart when I see people on writing forums asking if what they want to do is okay. If they want to do it, it's okay. Will it sell? Well, they won't know the answer to that until they try. We are the captains of our works. ^_^
Vampires are kind of dead though...
(ha)
Perhaps they're due to rise from the grave? BOOM, BABY!
DeleteI really like this! It's great for us to remember when participating in a crit forum or betaing. Yes there are valuable nuggets in there, but in the end you have to go with what you love. If you truly love what you've written, you're likely going to be rocking it (or just a few edit-tweaks away from rocking it)!
ReplyDeleteExactly! You're the only one who can really tell if deviating from "the rules" is working for you
DeleteThe funny thing about this is that with things like books, movies, and music the masses really just like what they are told to like. With the right momentum a used condom will sell.
ReplyDelete-BB
ROFLMAO (does anyone still say that? well, I am)
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