Ten gems of advice for debut authors.

Yep. This community is all about hammering people down lest they get ‘uppity’ :D

Seriously tho, I don’t think I would ever have completed a short let alone attempted a novel without the constant support and badgering of my Chrons fam.

pH

Edit: autocorrect strikes multiple times.
 
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I cannot relate to #1: I enjoy writing! (Does that make me wierd?)

But yeah, this was a fun read! :)
 
I do think it was meant as tongue-in-cheek-iness:

However I am beginning to understand that finding advice on writing is like looking for a good pair of shoes.
You want something that fits and you are comfortable with.

This is why we end up going back to those old beat up shoes we've had all along.

Want some writing advice:
'Walk a mile in my shoes.'
'Then; walk a mile in your new shoes.'
'Lastly: put on those old shoes or slippers and start writing; don't wait for me.'

Or: just start with the last piece of advice and give your self some peace from advice.
 
Well... I enjoy writing synopsis! So there.


...

That was a blatant lie too far huh?



Anyway, I liked the article. Nice reminder of some important stuff.
 
This is interesting, because it seems to be directed at people who approach writing in quite a different way to me. I’m not sure if it’s practice or mentality, but I don’t find writing stressful, personally, and I’m not plagued by doubt about it. I like the solitary, self-motivated experience of typing words onto a screen. The only people you have to deal with, until you get to trying to get published, are the ones that you make up, and that's fine by me.

Phyrebrat said:
I think it’s tongue in cheek or spoofy. At least that’s how I read it.
Click to expand...

But how tongue-in-cheek? How much can I rely on this? The problem I have with this sort of advice (and this example isn’t the worst, by a very long way) is that it’s written to entertain as much as inform. Personally, I’d much rather read a dull textbook that told me exactly how it is, than an amusing article that exaggerates for effect. Is it overly prissy to compare writing to repairing a car or making a table? The instructions for those are pretty clear. I don’t want to be winked at by the author.

That said, mileage may vary. Sometimes I hear people talking about writing in a way that’s just alien to me and I accept that there’s a lot of different ways of doing it. I freely accept that I’m in a small minority here and that I don’t think that authors shouldn’t give speeches like that – clearly, it’s what a lot of people want to hear.
 
I think you are being too serious Toby. (Or are you being tongue-in-cheek? :))

I read it as the speaker being comic or 'letting her hair down' (or trying to - it doesn't always work for me, and she mixes in some points that have no comic effect a bit too soon) to another group of writers. I think if we heard her speak it, it would be far more obvious.

I think if you want it to inform, you could glean some information from reading between the lines....but it's purpose, I feel, was to entertain a hall of people having a dinner or a glass of wine.

In the same way that if you book an after-dinner speaker for an event you don't want them to give the room a technical lecture on a subject but to give a humorous talk to entertain.
 
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