Trashcan
There are a lot of good ideas about writing, and then there are some crap ones. I’ve collected a list of concepts I think should end up in the trashcan. If you don’t agree, don’t sweat it. This is just my opinion.
- Writing prompts. I don’t see the point of these. Why would you write about some random concept when you could be working on your project? If your imagination is stuck and you have no ideas these are not what is going to get you unglued. Sparking does that.
- Worrying about the market before you even have a character in mind. Good stories sell, period. Even if you plan to focus on a genre you don’t need to worry at the beginning so long as you have a good story. Where you are shelved in the bookstore is a secondary concern to writing well.
- Focusing on reading all the recommended or famous authors of a single genre or subclass, even if it is one you plan to work in. You don’t need to read everything out there to get an ear for the language and imagination is more important. Variety is good for you, read out of any genre you are remotely interested in.
- Reading books you don’t like just because you feel you are supposed to. That’s what skimming is for.
- Dumbing down the language. Reading is how one acquires a better vocabulary, cutting out longer words sort of guarantees our children won’t be as literate.
- Cutting out adverbs because it is popular. (See my article)
- Jargon. I’ve poked around at blogs of creative writing program graduates and I really wonder what is taught in these courses because no writer I know talks like that.
- Creative writing degrees. This is probably just a prejudice but since I don’t think anyone can teach you how to write I don’t see how one of these is better than majoring in English and I have plenty of ideas as to how it could be worse.
- Thinking of yourself as average. Who cares if you are a genius? That’s not the point. If you don’t feel like you have something unique to share why are you bothering?
- Free-writing. I don’t see how it helps to just write about just anything. Sometimes you need to take the time to diagnose a problem and reason through it instead of hope it goes away by directionless writing.
- Being afraid of outlines.
- Formatting outlines.
- Keeping a journal. I have tonnes of journal books. I use them for handwriting notes on my stories when I don’t feel like typing or bringing my computer or think the pen may help. If I want to write about myself I blog. See my blurb on free-writing.
- Spelling and Punctuation. They are incredibly important but not in the get the ideas down phase. So long as you can read it, a spellchecker can get close, and you roughly have a concept of where to put the dots (period, dash, colin, semi-colin, apostrophe, quotation marks, brackets and comma) you can fix it later. Even if you do know exactly where everything belongs, it doesn’t matter if you get it right while zooming though a first draft.
- Remembering all the terms for grammar. Its more important to know and internalize how to put together a sentence and where the direction of language is going, than caring about what a past participle is. That can be looked up.
- Reading grammar books past high school. Own one, yes, they’re great references when you need to fill in the punctuation you ignored. But so long as you have an ear for the language one of those is just going to bore the shite out of you.
- Worrying about what others think unless you respect them. And then take their opinions with a grain of salt. No one is right 100% of the time and a lot of advice is highly individual.
- Believing it’s not possible to go from the beginning of the essay to the end, run a spell checker and turn in the paper. Some people can, some people can’t. If the teacher freaks turn in a draft with your name misspelled. Nothing says it has to be all that different from the final. (Personal experience here)
- Brainstorming - high school style. It’s just a crap idea. Mulling, percolating, and experimenting are a much better way to go. Pieces of paper with bubbles are not.
- Writing at the same time every day.
- Believing what works for you works for everyone. I’m sharing how I work, it may not resonate.
- Writing for the money, fame, or ludicrous extras. Good luck getting those even if you are successful
- Focusing too soon. Who cares if you finish a story that doesn’t work or want to experiment with different ideas. You can settle down when you have a handle on the angles.
- Worrying about branding before you have a proper book under way.
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