Everyone loves to give advice. There’s nothing quite like the pleasure of telling someone else how to lead their life.
I follow several different advice sites and “Ask InsertNameHere” columns, most of which have forum systems for giving your own advice. Often when I should be writing I spend my time explaining to strangers on the internet how they should act around cranky relations, annoying colleagues and other people’s children. But although I do occasionally post under the category advice for writers on my blog, I’m never quite sure that it’s the right thing to do.
One reason is that very few people ever take my advice. I can’t tell you how many times a friend or friend-of-a-friend has asked me for advice on getting published only to ignore everything I’ve suggested. (The most often ignored advice is: “Don’t write a 100,000 word novel and then submit it. Submit a 15,000 word draft and see if anyone actually *wants* more.”) Nowadays I save my professional advice for my writers group, who are tough enough to cope with the occasional scathing critique (“someone hit by three crossbow bolts would not shake it off easily”), and for the teenagers who ask questions at schools and book fairs who have done me the courtesy of showing up and asking a question.
Another reason I don’t write a lot of advice is that there’s heaps of it already out there. Last year the Guardian asked every prominent author they could find for their ten rules for writing. There are books like How NOT to Write a Novel and blogs like Write to Be Published and The Stroppy Author’s Guide to Publishing. Just google for “advice for writers” and you’ll find 96 pages of results.
With so much advice on offer you have to wonder how useful it is. Much of it comes uncontextualised: “write what you know”, “don’t write in the second person”, “don’t write about vampires” – TELL ME WHY! Sometimes it’s just plain wrong: “pay to get your text edited before submitting it”, “design your own cover”, “don’t bother submitting to professional publishers” – NO, NO, NO! A substantial portion of online advice comes from unpublished, pre-published or independent authors with experience in self-publishing and self-promotion – but little to no experience of professional publication. Go to an indie author for advice on alternative avenues of publication: eBooks, internet, self publication and small presses. But for advice on publication by an established publishing company go to a pro author – or better yet, a professional agent, one who won’t charge you a readers fee. (And there I go, giving advice.)
Advice doesn’t exist in a vacuum – consider the credentials of your potential mentor. I’ve been asked to give advice about graphic novels, travel writing and poetry: genres in which my only experience is as a consumer. (Not that I mean to discount the experience of the reader: reading widely in a genre is a fine basis for critique.) I’ve been given advice by people who don’t have a clue what they’re talking about: “you should write a book like Harry Potter” or “my life would make a fantastic story – write about me!”
Some authors don’t give advice. Philip Pullman’s response to the Guardian’s request for tips was: “My main rule is to say no to things like this, which tempt me away from my proper work”. Careful readers will notice the stealth advice in that statement.
Most authors with an online presence give some sort of advice in their blogs, FAQs or other web pages. Advice posts are easy to write – you don’t get to be a pro author without picking up at least one tip or trick along the way. That means they’re an easy way to add content to your site – and marketing folk will often recommend creating a blog and posting up some advice to demonstrate you have an online existence. (Yes, I have been guilty of this when my blog was looking very empty.)
I asked some professional authors why they gave advice and the answers were enlightening:
- “I think it’s the teacher in me”
- “[it's] a great way to procrastinate”
- “if you’ve found something that works, it’s tempting to think you’ve discovered the right way, and perhaps the only way, to do it”
- “I get quite a few emails asking for advice – particularly from teen writers – so it’s useful to be able to refer them to a page on my blog”
- “[I] see it as a kind of ‘pro bono’ payback for all the times other writers have helped me when I wanted to know something”
- “because I hate to see people slogging away re-inventing the wheel”
- “I have absolutely no idea but I’m always grateful for whatever I can get. Especially if it’s free…”
- “it can be very fulfilling to help a writer ‘break in’”
- “there are writing techniques, rather than ‘rules’, just as there are techniques for music or art – and there’s a world of difference between breaking them through ignorance or with intent”
And, perhaps the most compelling reason of all, “people ask”.
The authors I asked responded with noticable humility. One author I asked said “I always stress however that it’s based on my experiences so don’t treat what I say as gospel – the industry changes and editors all have their own opinions”. Another commented: “I give writing advice… but always present it as slightly eccentric and ‘what works for me’”. Another successful author said: “I always feel slightly ludicrous giving advice, I don’t know that much myself…”.
Advice given with the best of intent can be wrong. Celia Rees replied: “For every rule given, there’s someone who has broken it and gone on to sell millions. Even the vampire thing – sure, they are going to throw every Stephenie Meyer lookalike straight in the bin, but if someone came up with another twist, that could be a different thing. The only rule is… there are no rules.”
And I’m 40,000 words into a novel I haven’t submitted yet because I want to make sure I get it right. Rules were made for breaking.
Wonderful, Rhiannon – a great collection of responses and such an interesting question to ask. (Thanks for the name check, too.) There is a distinction to be drawn, I think, between the kind of advice that helps people to approach writing and get their book published and the type of advice that is the nitty gritty of the business – between how to manage a narrative arc and what to argue for in terms of digital rights, for instance. Perhaps it’s an issue of splitting ‘professional writer’ in two, and dealing with the profession or the writing. It’s much easier to give professional advice with a feeling of confidence, but there are many, many ways of writing successfully so all (even professional) advice, does come with the ‘this helps for me’ caveat. Does that make sense?
Comment by Stroppy Author — April 20, 2011 @ 8:30 am
“someone hit by three crossbow bolts would not shake it off easily”
Depends if they’re fired from a crossbow or lightly tossed, underarm.
Comment by Richard — April 20, 2011 @ 9:06 am
Great post, Rhiannon. Giving advice openly such as on a blog or website is about as bad as writing a book about the writing craft (I know I’ve done it!) because there are no absolutes.
Writing that sells is not, unfortunately, always good writing. I have just started reading one best selling author whose writing is – in my point of view – pretty abysmal if you are judging it for eloquence, flow and language (and by that I don’t mean literary- just ‘good’ writing which I don’t think has to be literary in the strict sense), but I can see why it is commercial because it is compelling in some ways.
A bit like watching a film that relies on action rather than character development but can still be entertaining if not exactly mind stretching!
So advice does need to be in context but there is also the problem that some people don’t really want advice and just want to be told that what they are writing is wonderful. Despite seeking your opinion they are outraged if you tell them it has flaws.
So often these seem to be the writers with the least talent. It has been my experience that often the most talented writers are those who are hesitant about their ability and constantly questioning what they write, always wanting to improve their writing and delighted to get any advice – but perhaps that is what reveals a true talent, someone who is always keen to learn and never thinks they know it all.
Comment by Linda Strachan — April 20, 2011 @ 9:06 am
I like giving advice and hate receiving it when it hasn’t been asked for. So I don’t often ask for it. But when I really do need and ask for advice from someone who knows more than me about something, I wouldn’t dream of not taking it seriously.
So my advice (!) would be: Think hard before asking for advice because you might not like what you hear. Do your research so that you can make sure you know you are asking the right person. Then listen, absorb, perform the necessary alchemy to make that advice fit in with what you are capable of and then act on it.
Comment by Mary Hoffman — April 20, 2011 @ 9:31 am
A very interesting and excellent post! I give ‘tips’ rather than advice and it’s usually only when people ASK. Sort of feels rude to say I won’t, so I generally come up with something. Actually, when asked what you need to do to be a writer (say in schools) always say: READ. And then read some more! But I’m a sucker for all the ‘how to write’ books, like Linda Strachan’s and others’. Can’t get enough of them and can’t wait for Nicola Morgan’s Write to be Published! You can always learn something new from someone else.
Comment by adele geras — April 20, 2011 @ 11:18 am
A great post, Rhiannon! People have asked me for advice, but I’m wary of giving any because I don’t quite feel like a pro writer ( will I ever is another question!), so I would direct them to other writers who are in a better position to advise. But I do my best to help and inspire kids when I go into schools because they’re still learning the craft of writing. So I agree that professional advice and writing advice are very different.
Mary, yes – the hardest thing of all as a writer is the ability to take on board advice given by someone you respect in your field. I was told to develop a thick skin when I was waiting for a verdict on my manuscript, which was at the publishers, and I’m glad I took that advice, the trick is to do that whilst still retaining the ability to absorb helpful criticism, and I guess that’s my advice.
Comment by Savita Kalhan — April 20, 2011 @ 11:42 am
Quite right. Advice should NEVER be given as an absolute. (LOL, as they say.)
And thanks muchly for the name check. And Adele, thanks to you, too!
Now, back to the real work, eh?
Comment by Nicola Morgan — April 20, 2011 @ 3:20 pm
Surely the best advice for any aspiring author would be to read, read some more, and then analyse and think about what you’ve read. Then go back and read your own work and try and read it from the position of a reader not the writer. The best advice from writers is probably to be got from the unspoken advice, the reading between the lines of things they say on their blog, in their twitter feeds.
But I think writing without reading was the subject of one of your other posts wasn’t it?
Comment by Thomas Shepherd — April 20, 2011 @ 3:26 pm
Happy to be quoted, Rhiannon, and an excellent post. It made me think about how rarely anyone actually asks us how we feel about things like spending time giving advice, not just what that advice might be.
Comment by Celia Rees — April 20, 2011 @ 5:12 pm
A great post, Rhiannon! People have asked me for advice, but I’m wary of giving any because I don’t quite feel like a pro writer ( will I ever is another question!), so I would direct them to other writers who are in a better position to advise. But I do my best to help and inspire kids when I go into schools because they’re still learning the craft of writing. So I agree that professional advice and writing advice are very different.Mary, yes – the hardest thing of all as a writer is the ability to take on board advice given by someone you respect in your field. I was told to develop a thick skin when I was waiting for a verdict on my manuscript, which was at the publishers, and I’m glad I took that advice, the trick is to do that whilst still retaining the ability to absorb helpful criticism, and I guess that’s my advice.
+1
Comment by Cristian Marzella — April 22, 2011 @ 5:56 pm