Best Writing Advice Ever (Except Meghan’s)
3 o'clock, June 3, 2006
Kelly Link says what I’ve been trying to say for a year or two now, only much better, ’cause she is, after all, Kelly Link.
The only thing you have to offer an editor, and readers, is you. Your voice. Stories and characters and narrative twists that only you are strange enough to want to write. Take risks. Some of you are in critique circles that have been going for quite some time. You know each other well enough to have built trust. And it takes trust to show a workshop the kind of ambitious work I'd like to see. Take chances. Write stories whose characters and the endings surprise even you.
All y’all (and y’all know who all y’all are), listen up!
(Courtesy of Charles Coleman Finlay, via Greg.)
Update: It occurs to me that maybe next time I join a writing group I maybe should think less about being a nice guy and more about getting everyone in the group to do better work. Be warned.
"It occurs to me that maybe next time I join a writing group I maybe should think less about being a nice guy and more about getting everyone in the group to do better work."
This is not an either/or situation. If you want a great writing group, you gotta do both. (Yes, you're being quick and glib, but this is one of those notions that sounds good when you're feeling grumpy, but it just leads to posturing instead of art.)