Hey, readers!
This post is a bit of a shift from the previous two as I turn my attention towards discussion rather than review. Whilst I will be writing reviews and analyses on this blog for the most part, once every blue moon a more discourse based post may reel its ugly head in. I hope you're willing to subject yourself to my opinions, no matter how extreme or manic they may be, and can take the time to engage in discussion.
Anyway, moving on from that, I guess I should address the topic at hand: writing tips. Now, as an aspiring writer, I can understand the urge to gobble up tips and tricks like nobody's business through some desperate hope of finally regurgitating something half-decent onto the page, or at least something you can read over without feeling the compulsive need to barf all over the keyboard. And maybe writing tips will do that for you, maybe. But, despite the good intentions behind the writing of tips and the modesty in reading tips, I just cannot agree with them and what they stand for. Writing is an art first and a craft second. The only worthwhile tips are to read a lot and write a lot; everything else is mere pontification and narcissistic wanking in order to convince the tip-giver that they are well-versed in the realm of the written word.
I'd been inspired to write this post due to an article on Huffington Post titled "Write Now: Writing a Bestseller". At first, I went about the usual routine of rolling my eyes and skimming the article indignantly. That was until the article turned on its head and announced that the only thing that matters in writing is your aim. What did you aim to achieve through the writing of your novel (or any piece of literature)? And it made me realise that this has become understated in the writing world nowadays. More and more writers feel the need to set arbitrary rules and guidelines to help other writers "make it". As Charlie Kaufman points out in "Adaptation.", writing is a journey into the unknown and to follow some arbitrary rules only works when you aim to cough out some typical piece of storytelling that will rack up the big bucks on release but soon fade into the forest as just another tree. If writers spend their time ticking off points on a checklist as their novel progresses, putting in strained efforts to try and succeed, they will only fail. They may get published, and they may sell, but then they are not a writer; they are a businessman. Writers like James Patterson or Dan Brown who write as a job and not a passion do not deserve and will never get my respect. Even writers who I would not consider myself a fan of are still respectable as artists. Someone like Stephen King sells well and is appealing to casual readers may still be considered an artist, because his works are a labour of love - they may even be described as humanistic in some way.
Writing is a selfish endeavour, that's what I believe. A writer puts himself onto paper and asks people to pay for it. He tells his readers that his thoughts and his personality are worth their money and their time. And some of them are. That is what strikes us when we read good literature: the authenticity of the spirit behind it. When you listen to these silly tips, you are selling your technique and not your heart, if you'll excuse the chesse. The only tip any writer can give is to write what speaks to you and with enough time and thought, you'll have something that you can read over and say to yourself: "I did good". That is it.
Thank you for reading.
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