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I was scratching my head yesterday at the astronomical number of new books on writing on the market today–most by people I’ve never heard of before with slim writing resumes and credentials. If you take the time to examine enough of these, you quickly discover that they say nothing new; they all cover essentially the same ground and say the same yadda yadda. No big surprise there because the elements of a good story or work of non-fiction are universally acknowledged, as old as humankind and writing, and absolutely old hat to seasoned writers.
(Pulling off a masterpiece, actually writing one, nevertheless, never has been easy and never will be. I mean, I know how a bird flies. It flaps its wings! Does that mean I can fly? Uh, no. Not naturally, anyway.)
At any rate, these breathless books promising to turn the reader into not only a whiz-bang writer, but a bestselling one as well, owe their existence to the widespread naivete of the tsunami of wannabe authors, a creature of our time and the spawn of Amazon. The books they pour over to acquire their writing skills do not contain stunning revelations, sure-fire gimmicks or heretofore closely guarded secrets on the “writing game.” Nope. And most are a rip.
But they are popping up all over the place because it seems everyone wants to be an “author” today, but few have invested the time and energy necessary to master the craft of writing. Sure, talent is important, but it’s not enough. It takes time and effort, tons of reading and writing, re-writing, practice-practice-practice and revision. We’re talking years here, friend. And even then there are no guarantees.
Yes, but! you will say, what about all those instant bestselling ebooks by nobody writers? What about them? Here today, gone tomorrow. Do you remember what was on the bestseller lists ten years ago? I rest my case.
As both a writer and editor myself of many years, there are no truths I am more certain of than the “sweat factor” and the long learning curve that go into making a great writer. Reading all the “how to” books on writing ever written does not a good writer make.
When I am introduced to someone for the first time, one of the most frequent questions I get, after my new friend has learned I’m a writer, is: “Wow. Where do you get your ideas?” Now, you may think that sounds naive. But it isn’t really. All the great book ideas come from life, not from books about writing. They come from watching and studying people, listening to them, wondering about them–and then asking yourself if so and so were in such and such a situation, what would this person do?
Voila: a believable plot is born, originating in character, and possibly resulting in an interesting book.
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Having said all this, I will now nevertheless offer humbly a short list of writing tutorials (click-click) worth your time and their weight in gold.
Filed under: writers, writing Tagged: Amazon, book criticism, editor, writers, writing Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
