Write What You Know (and other suspect advice)

That time-honored edict seems to get followed in at least one way, because something lots of writers sure like to write about is writing. We do it here, quite a bit actually, so we’ll be careful about throwing too many stones in this glass house.

Many authors pen books of guidance for aspiring writers, and a seemingly disproportionate number of protagonists are themselves writers. (We have a major character who is a novelist, and we have a main character who is a journalist, and we’ve used various forms of the book-within-a-book device.)

It’s probably not that there’s something wrong with writers. All professions probably have some form of this, but when painters paint about painting or plumbers plumb about plumbing it doesn’t result in a book. Anyway.

As far as actual advice is concerned, we say writing is best done with a partner, and we try to illuminate how we make that work. We can only speak with any authority about our own experience, and we try to be consistent about acknowledging that it might not be what works best for anyone else. Hell, it could turn out not to be what even works best for us. We try new things and adjust our process all the time. And then we blog about it.

They say, “If you really want learn about something, teach it.” This might account for much of the tendency among writers to write about writing, because the act of writing is very much a way of teaching yourself. So, even if there were no audience of aspirants to serve as a market, writers would probably still do this.

Chuck Wendig shared some insightful points about his own journey in regard to this topic. Check it out over on his blog: https://terribleminds.com/ramble/2022/10/05/why-i-dont-talk-as-much-about-writing-anymore/