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mbarker Original Posting July 8, 2018
Writer's Digest, June 1990, has a short article on pages 30 and 31 by Dick Belsky, talking about advice to writers. Here's the subtitle. "Traditional advice from professional writers should be considered – not followed blindly. Because ultimately, the best advice for you comes from within you."
Dick points out that writing doesn't come with blueprints or instruction booklets. You need to listen to advice from people who have already done it, but you also need to be prepared to ignore well-meaning but inappropriate guidance. Do what's right for you. He gives a number of examples of advice that he has collected and discarded on his way to selling three novels.
"Find a quiet environment to write in." A lot of people recommend that. However, Dick discovered that he likes a little bit of activity. A busy library, Dairy Queen or McDonald's, that's the environment where he writes!
"Write a set amount of words each day – say 10 pages worth – and stick to that regimen." But… What if you get excited and want to write 20? Or what if you only write five and you're beat. Yes, writing every day is a good habit, but… Dick recommends Raymond Chandler's approach. Set aside a four hour period every day, where you sit at your writing desk. You don't have to write, you can just sit there, but don't do anything else positive.
"A book takes a long time to write – take your time." Well... Dick wrote his last novel in three months, while working full-time on another job. Stephen King talks about writing a book during Christmas week vacation. If you have a reasonably good idea of what you want to say, go ahead and say it. You don't need to procrastinate!
"Plot out your novel before you write it." The great debate, pantsers (aka Discovery writers) versus plotters. Dick says he has never done an outline. He usually has a good idea where he's going to start, and what he wants the last line to be. Just the last line. He writes that last line down, and occasionally looks at it. But that's as much as he uses.
"Work on more than one project at a time so you can go back and forth if you get stuck." Here, too, Dick takes a different approach. When he's writing a book, the character, the plot, the mood, the dialogue, the scenes take up all of his attention. There's no room for a second project.
"Your title is very important – spend a lot of time on it." Well, Dick has had working titles, things he has played around with, and often just kind of slaps a title on at the last minute. Then people tell him he has a great title! Well...
Now there is one piece of classic advice that Dick strongly recommends you follow. "Don't give up." As Dick reminds us, just about every great writer has been rejected. Sometimes many times. For yourself together and try again. Dick's first novel was turned down by more than 20 publishers. Then, when it was published, it got rave reviews.
Dick finished his column with two short sentences. "Forget about all this advice I've given you. Just do what's best for you."
Sounds like good advice to me.
Writer's Digest, June 1990, has a short article on pages 30 and 31 by Dick Belsky, talking about advice to writers. Here's the subtitle. "Traditional advice from professional writers should be considered – not followed blindly. Because ultimately, the best advice for you comes from within you."
Dick points out that writing doesn't come with blueprints or instruction booklets. You need to listen to advice from people who have already done it, but you also need to be prepared to ignore well-meaning but inappropriate guidance. Do what's right for you. He gives a number of examples of advice that he has collected and discarded on his way to selling three novels.
"Find a quiet environment to write in." A lot of people recommend that. However, Dick discovered that he likes a little bit of activity. A busy library, Dairy Queen or McDonald's, that's the environment where he writes!
"Write a set amount of words each day – say 10 pages worth – and stick to that regimen." But… What if you get excited and want to write 20? Or what if you only write five and you're beat. Yes, writing every day is a good habit, but… Dick recommends Raymond Chandler's approach. Set aside a four hour period every day, where you sit at your writing desk. You don't have to write, you can just sit there, but don't do anything else positive.
"A book takes a long time to write – take your time." Well... Dick wrote his last novel in three months, while working full-time on another job. Stephen King talks about writing a book during Christmas week vacation. If you have a reasonably good idea of what you want to say, go ahead and say it. You don't need to procrastinate!
"Plot out your novel before you write it." The great debate, pantsers (aka Discovery writers) versus plotters. Dick says he has never done an outline. He usually has a good idea where he's going to start, and what he wants the last line to be. Just the last line. He writes that last line down, and occasionally looks at it. But that's as much as he uses.
"Work on more than one project at a time so you can go back and forth if you get stuck." Here, too, Dick takes a different approach. When he's writing a book, the character, the plot, the mood, the dialogue, the scenes take up all of his attention. There's no room for a second project.
"Your title is very important – spend a lot of time on it." Well, Dick has had working titles, things he has played around with, and often just kind of slaps a title on at the last minute. Then people tell him he has a great title! Well...
Now there is one piece of classic advice that Dick strongly recommends you follow. "Don't give up." As Dick reminds us, just about every great writer has been rejected. Sometimes many times. For yourself together and try again. Dick's first novel was turned down by more than 20 publishers. Then, when it was published, it got rave reviews.
Dick finished his column with two short sentences. "Forget about all this advice I've given you. Just do what's best for you."
Sounds like good advice to me.
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