On the Best Writing Advice Ever

Revisisted

Let’s start with Philip Hensher’s delightful —

Tell your reader what colour things are.

And Michael David’s —

‘Write for all the senses.’ I forget who, but definitely a female author.

Yes, these are golden. And neither of them came up in yesterday’s Worst Ever Writing Advice.

But we did get variations on the much-disliked Show, don’t tell and Write what you know and Keep a notebook and pencil with you at all times and Don’t bother.

The most popular advice of all, in various iterations, was —

READ/Read read read/Read good writing, and don’t read bad writing.

Along with —

Write!/Get on with it/JFDI/Just get the shit written

P.G. Wodehouse was credited with —

First apply the seat of the trousers to the surface of the chair.

But, basic as this is, there were warnings about the whole business of receiving wisdom.

Giselle Leeb put it friendly-like —

Ignore writing advice :-)

And Annett Gordon tweaked this a little —

Don’t take advice from someone unless they are invested in the outcome. I read that. It’s a David Hare quote.

Hmm, I’ve learned something there.

And also from Rosie Wilby —

Ask for feedback. But not from too many different people

Regular contributor

Rob True Stories

added, on the subject of independence —

Don’t try to please readers or conform to trends.

Let your Demon feed you. Be brutal, honest, and vivid in your portrayal of his visions.

As for self-doubt, here’s Jenny Colgan —

If you’ve published professionally before, there’s a standard below which you probably won’t drop — it might not be the best thing you’ve ever written, but it won’t be the illegible unpublishable bilge your brain is trying to tell you it is at the 38k mark.

Jane Harris had three pieces of advice —

It’s a toss-up between: “You can edit a bad page but you can’t edit a blank page,” “Nobody knows anything,” and “If there is no wind, row,” (the last of which is really life advice and a Chinese proverb but it applies very well to writing).

Philip Ardagh also chimed in with a wise trio —

1. Don’t write yourself out. Always leave a thought you can pick up the next day to carry on where you left off.

2. Never throw anything away. It may come in handy later. Even years later.

3. Don’t strive for originality, strive for excellence and originality may come along anyway.

More practically, Tom Kealy suggested —

Read your writing out.

What about those readers who aren’t ourselves? Any advice about them. Well, from Chika Unigwe —

assume knowledge. what folks don’t know, and they are interested in, they’ll look up

Agreed.

Toward the fun end of the party, we had Rowan Coleman —

Fine, if you really feel it’s a good idea to write a Brooklyn scribe travel novel then go ahead.

And Fake History Hunter hurled this —

If you press the keys of your 1930s typewriter hard enough the letter o will be punched out of the paper and whoever you’re writing to will know you’re really really really angry.

Also make sure there’s a sleeping dog and/or cat near you while you work.

And Richard Charkin insisted —

No exclamation marks.

But to end with some seriousness (if that’s useful) Olja RK said —

Every word must be true.

!!!