Advice from writers to writers is cheap. I try not to give advice beyond “there’s no right or wrong way to write,” but still I’m influenced by others who say how to write. After all, you have to please others, no? I’ve been told you have to write short to write long. The idea being that if your short pieces get noticed then you’ll be in a position to say more. (I.e., write short stories before trying a novel.) Then I asked a New York Times bestselling author. He said, “If I had done that, I’d have never gotten published.” Another chestnut we’re freely given is that we shouldn’t make our readers work to understand us. Pander to the reader. This past week I started to read a novel, again a New York Times bestseller, and some thirty pages in I still have no idea what’s going on. Now, I do hold a doctorate in the humanities so I think I know how to read. Somebody’s bucking the advice and making plenty of bucks at it. ...
Blog of a struggling writer.