Writing How-To Books: What's Good & What Ain't

I've been reading up on the old how-to's of writing during the last couple of weeks. There's any number of good ones out there and there's an equal number of crappy ones as well.

Janet Burroway has written possibly the best book on writing that I've ever found. Her 'Writing Fiction: The Art of the Narrative Craft' is easy to understand, provides exercises and provokes thought in ways that most writing guides do not. I've read a few other gems as well but I don't remember the titles off the top of my head. 'Fiction First Aid' is another, but the author's name escapes me at the moment. And then there are the awful ones. As much as I hate to say it, Stephen King's 'On Writing' is putrid. He spends more time wandering off-topic than he does telling me, the wannabe author, anything I can actually use. He does rail on about adverbs and adjectives being overused, but I've seen that same thing in countless other how-to writing guides.

If you've read any of these writing how-to books, you know the ones I'm talking about. The books where the author basically does nothing but wax poetic about the 'zen' of the writing experience. What a load of crap. I don't need to hear about how magical it is to write. If it wasn't worth my time, I wouldn't be doing it. I picked up maybe twelve or thirteen books at the library last week and maybe four of them had any actual information on the mechanics of writing and building a story or novel. The rest of them just went on and on about how important and mystical the act of writing is.

Now, don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't mind some mid-list semi-professional writer or editor telling me tips and tricks of what helped them get published, but in some cases they don't offer any really helpful advice. Not to mention, better than half of the people publishing these how-to books are not even that famous. In fact, some of them don't really write full-time for a living. Most are editors that managed to work for a big publishing house, so therefore their words on the subject are instantly golden. I suppose that's true to some extent, but let's get real, folks. I can live with the self-important editors, they're just that way. It's the mid-list romance authors writing those how-to books that I can't stand. I get email from one of them, Emily Hanlon. Her whole thing is about how to 'nurture your muse.' I suppose that mystical garbage works well for her, but for me it's just plain retarded to waste your time thinking about the art of writing rather than just sitting down to write. My advice to writers, if any, is to just WRITE. Don't contemplate how wonderful the experience is, don't get all misty-eyed about it, just DO it. You can't publish anything if you don't get it written.

There. I've ranted enough on that subject for now.

In other news....

My time online these days is very limited. I live out in the back country and have no real internet connection, so that leaves me plenty of time to write, as opposed to surfing the net and chat forums all day long. I've got several projects going right now and have been writing like crazy. In an effort to cut down on editing time, I've been fixing stuff as I go. This has slowed me down some, I admit, but at least I'm getting stuff down on paper. 'Golden Hour' is 1/3 complete, as well as a couple of short stories I've managed to get done & sent out. 'R&D' is still in stasis waiting for a re-write, and 'Dancing' is somewhere in limbo-land. Meanwhile, 'Golden Hour' will be short and to the point. It's hardcore suspense, so that should have a better chance of getting published quickly, especially if 'Dancing' does well. Crossing fingers on that one. 'Golden Hour' is basically the sequel to 'Dancing,' but done from a different POV. I'm writing it quickly, too, editing as I go. That way, hopefully I'll only have to rewrite it from the beginning once or twice before it gets printed & sent off. I hate editing, but that's the life of a writer. Maybe I should wax poetic about how much it sucks to rewrite an entire novel from Square One, like I did 5 times for R&D.

Anyhow, that's it for now.

Final thought: When it comes to How-To books, choose wisely.

Keep writing,

Jillian