Best Writing Advice You've Gotten

What I got wasn't so much advice, as it was a question. The man said, "If you want to write, why aren't you writing?"

It was an aha moment.

2004 - The Grotesque's Spirit
2005 - Jane's Way
2006 - Fruit of the Blood
2007 - A Wolf by Any Other Name (working title, never finished)
2008 - Cave Dweller
2009 - Pitch and Pearl

Mine comes in the form of two quotes, from two people who I've never had the fortune of meeting:

1. "You must stay drunk on writing so that reality cannot destroy you," (Ray Bradbury)

and

2. "If there is a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." (Tony Morrison)

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic to it. Begin it now." -- Goethe

Well mine comes the Talmud. In your lifetime you are to plant a tree, have children and write a book. I am sure it says that somewhere.

My best advice actuall came form my AP lit teacher. When I has having trouble with my story, i made the mistake of going to him for advice ^_^;

he said, "You come to me every day and ask the same questions. If you keep forgetting, then you ought to give up."

I know, it sounds mean, but i haven't asked him any more questions since then, and not my story is flourishing off of his terrible criticism of my development.

Another one I have from Stephen King's book On Writing, which fits nano quite well, is this:

"In many cases when a reader puts a story aside because it 'got boring,' the boredom arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of description and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball rolling."

So I'm probably going to keep posting here as more of my favorite quotes come to mind (the vast majority of which come from the King, sorry but he's not famous for being a crappy writer), and two more just popped into my head as i swimming in my fantasy world.

First, there's this one : "You must not come lightly to the blank page"

And second: "Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule"

Both of these, and other one I posted from Stephen King, come from his book "On Writing". Other than "The Elements of Style" it is the only book about writing that I have ever read, and the only one I deem worth reading. In any case, if you are doing nano, then you are a writer, and therefore I highly recommend you grab a copy.

Someone recently told me that if things aren't going well, throw in a dead hooker. Works every time.

I'm hoping that was writing advice, and not life advice.

NaNo Writer: '04, '06, '07, '08
NaNo Winner: '06 (untitled), '08 (A Different Kind of Solitude)

Love it. 'Nough said.

I was at a writing conference thingy when I was in high school and one of the speakers was an author named Ed Dee (14 Peck Slip) and one of the things that he said always stuck with me.

"Be okay with writing a dirty copy of your story. The important thing is get the idea down entirely."

And the next bit of advice came from my parents when I was whining about how no one would like any of the stories that I had written.

"You think that no one likes the same thing you do? 6 billion people and you think that no one enjoys the same type of stories that you do?"

So now I just try to write with abandon, leaving my inner editor and inner judge locked away in a closet until I am finished.

2008: Wrong Turn

Until you meet Kyrdwyn at a write-in, you don't know how funny this is!

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic to it. Begin it now." -- Goethe

Interesting idea. I'll see if I can fit that in sometime. Thanks. Congrats on your stats.

Everyone always says it, but I find it to be, not only the best advice, but the most important. " Write everyday. Doesn't matter what, just write!"

Another one I like is not necessarily writing advice but its from The Sister Act 2 where Sister Mary Clarence is talking to Rita about singing. She quotes from a book where that author says, "If you wake up in the morning and all you can think about is writing, then you're meant to be a writer."

My absolute favorite of ALL TIME from Mr. Mark Twain:

"Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it, and the writing will be just as it should be."

Haha kinda reminds me of King; "the road to hell is paved in adverbs"

This is a variation on the "just get it down" theme, from the first book that really gave me a push toward being a writer, Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. She's a proponent of "sh*tty first drafts," so here's an excerpt from the chapter by that title:

"All good writers write [sh*tty first drafts]. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts. People tend to look at successful writers, writers who are getting their books published and maybe even doing well financially, and think that they sit down at their desks every morning feeling like a million dollars, felling great about who they are and how much talent they have and what a great story they have to tell; that they take in a few deep breaths, push back their sleeves, roll their necks a few times to get all the cricks out, and dive in, typing fully formed passages as fast as a court reporter. But this is just the fantasy of the uninitiated. I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much."

I can't recommend this book highly enough -- it's very funny and full of great advice.

Yet another by King, and one I almost forgot I had in my arsenal.

"Good books don't give up all their secrets at once."

I love this one, perhaps more than the others, simply due to the fact that it fits so well with how I write, and how most people write. While we are all different, few of us actually set out knowing every detail of the story we will be putting on the page. That story evolves throughout the course of it as much as we as writers evolve while writing. What Stephen King said makes me feel like that's ok, and that what my 8th grade English said (something along the lines of "Authors know exactly what they want to write before they write") is complete bs.

In other words, it's ok, and even good, not to know what's going to happen in your book right now.

Hmm... I can't seem to write unless I know the ending/outcome. I don't necessarily have to plan out everything, but I do need to know where everyone is going to be by the time I finish so that I have something to work towards.

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic to it. Begin it now." -- Goethe

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic to it. Begin it now." -- Goethe

Well yes, I didn't mean I just go blundering around in the dark and hope to make it out alright, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but as for what lurks in the shadows, that's a mystery to me until I trip over it.

It's hard to pull just one out of all of the piles of advice that all sounds so great but mostly ends up getting ignored.

But my favourite two both happen to be bits I've read in the last couple of weeks and they're doing the most to motivate me.

Write no matter what. There is never a good time to write, so just write now. (Paraphrasing Susan Wiggs)

And when it comes to trying to get published and dealing with rejection letters, this bit from an editor commenting on a friend's (most excellent) blog has just given me gallons of courage to keep Writing Now in spite of the rejection sure to come at the end of the rainbow.

"The worst they can say is “no” and then…nothing. You still have your stories. They will not come to your house and burn all copies of them in anger that you dared to ask."

And another by him,

"Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s."