Brief Essays on Genre, Part 21: On Writing Advice

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On Writing Advice

 

No writing advice will work for everyone. This is because “writing” is not a single skill but a diverse range of strategies that result in a superficially similar end product. Some writers cannot begin a story until they know how it will end. For others, who write to surprise themselves, an ending foreseen is the death of the entire enterprise. And so on.

 

Aspiring writers must learn to approach all advice with a grain of salt. Try it out with an open mind. If it works, put it in your literary toolbox. If it doesn’t, discard it without regret. It simply doesn’t work for your kind of writer.

 

This advice applies to all, with no exceptions.

 

--Michael Swanwick