Our first assignment in Intermediate Creative Writing was to write the most important things we thought a young writer should know. I realize the purpose and value of the exercise as a "go and do likewise" kind of thing as well as a clever diagnostic for our instructor to see what she has to work with, but it still felt a bit disingenuous to write this. I'm a young writer myself, so it's a case of the inexperienced leading the imaginary inept. Still, here it is, and I do believe that it is good advice. The underlying ideas apply to most creative endeavors.
Five Things Every Young
Writer Should Know
1.
Read Other Work Critically
“Read, read, read. Read
everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like
a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master.” -William Faulkner
As a writer your choice of mentors is
wide: Vonnegut, Rowling, Shakespeare, Collins, Byron, Dostoyevsky, Cisneros,
Burgess, Tolkien, Wallace, Hawthorne and on, the limit of authors and what you
may learn from them is set only by the time you can afford to read them. Learning
how to ape your betters is the first step toward becoming a great writer, but
it is by no means the last.
2.
Know the Rules
“Nothing leads so straight to
futility as literary ambitions without systematic knowledge.”
- H.G. Wells
There are many rules in
writing. The aspiring writer first learns to “show don’t tell,” and to “write
what you know.” More advanced instruction unveils Aristotelian Structure and
Chekov’s Gun among dozens of others, and many young writers begin to resent
these restrictions. The rules, however, were
not established by the despotic literary elite who happen to have an arbitrary
distaste for sentences ending in prepositions, or by some oppressive Orwellian
regime hell bent on stifling creativity and artistic expression by demanding
all narratives be confined to three acts. The rules are simply methods that
have been proven to work. They are not a fence to confine the genius, they are
a path to literary success.
3.
Don’t Be Afraid to Break the Rules
“There are no laws for the novel. There never have been, nor can there ever be.”
- Doris Lessing
Notice we call them “rules,”
not “laws.” There are times when breaking the rules is more effective than
abiding by them. Unsurprisingly, there is no rule for breaking the rules; a
writer must rely on his instincts.
4.
Stay Grounded
“They're fancy talkers about
themselves, writers. If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't
listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.” - Lillian Hellman
When writers
write about writing, they often expound upon their unmitigated sufferings,
along with the sublime virtues of their chosen craft. It helps to remember that
writers, at least fiction writers, are professional liars. They will rush to
remind you that their lies are intended to reveal even greater truths, which
should make you all the more suspicious when you see them trying to speak plainly.
Don’t allow them to puff you up and get you high on yourself. They are really
just patting themselves on the back. Don’t let them discourage you with their
moanings, either. They are just disgruntled employees whining about their job,
only their job is to be eloquent so they are exceptionally good at it. All of
their self-righteous pontifications and lamentations only serve to distract you
from the most important step to becoming a great writer, which is to
5.
Write
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above
all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
-Stephen King
People that talk about writing,
read about writing, or even formally study writing are not necessarily writers.
People that write are writers. Becoming good at it is the same process as
becoming good at anything else: practice. Write constantly. Write fiction and
nonfiction. Write autobiography and the hero’s journey, write poetry and short stories
and novels. Practice plot twists, angst, and true love in addition to clever
wording, symbolism and palpable settings, and bite off more than you can chew. Great
writers fail and fail often, but they keep writing until they finally succeed.
