I can almost guarantee that any author here who has done
an interview has been asked the classic question: What advice would you give to
an aspiring writer? I’m sure some of us have squirmed and given the question
great thought in order to inspire someone who might want to become a writer. We
may even think about the advice of our sage and famous authors who have gone
before us and the answer they may have given to that question.
Most of us see a quote by a famous author and we’re eager
to hold on to that nugget of wisdom with both hands. I even keep a little
notebook with these lovely gems written in it. I’m all in when it comes to
improving my writing and being the best writer I know how to be. Famous authors
have already blazed that trail, so who better than a well-known author to learn
how to improve my writing.
But hold on a minute, do these famous authors always
spout literary wisdom, or could it be possible that maybe, just maybe, they may
have thrown out some really horrible advice once in a while? Here are a few
gems by famous authors which may prove to be the worst writing advice ever:
Edgar Allen Poe
“Include a beautiful woman with raven locks and porcelain
skin, preferably quite young, and let her die tragically of some unknown
ailment.”
–Edgar
Allan Poe
“Write only when you have something to say.”
–David
Hare
“Don’t have children.”
(I can’t help it. I’m thinking about the History Channel program:
People: Population Zero on this quote)
–Richard
Ford
Marguerite Duras
“Writing is trying to know beforehand what one would
write if one wrote, which one never knows until afterward.”
Or: “There is something exhilarating about successful,
magnificent mistakes.”
-Marguerite
Duras’s
Here is Kathryn
Davis’s account of how she knew when to abandon a book-in-progress:
The very first novel I wrote was horrible, as so many
first novels are. I put my novel in a box and hid it somewhere. I don’t even
know where it is anymore. When you’re working on a novel, you have this idea
that it’s not easy to write one, and that one of the things you have to do is
persist through the difficult times. Inevitably, there’s always that moment
when you find yourself wondering, “Well, is this an instance of a problem that
I have to persist through, or am I just working on a horrible novel that I
should just get rid of?”
“You never have to change
anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.”
— Saul Bellow
Ray Bradbury
“Quantity produces quality. If
you only write a few things, you are doomed.” —Ray Bradbury
“Give your readers as much
information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers
should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why,
that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last
few pages.” — Kurt Vonnegut
“Consistency is the last refuge
of the unimaginative.”
— Oscar Wilde
“Don’t try.” (Oh yes, this is a marvelous piece of advice.
If we took it, no one would be writing anything anymore. We’d all be sitting
around watching video games I suppose.)
— Charles Bukowski
“Write drunk; edit sober.”
— Ernest Hemingway
“Never use a metaphor, simile,
or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.”
— George Orwell
“Avoid detailed descriptions of
characters.” and “Same for places and things.”
—Elmore Leonard
“You must refrain from
rewriting, except to editorial order.”
— Robert A. Heinlein
“Don’t be a draught-horse! Work
with pleasure only.”
— Henry Miller
“You’re a Genius all the time”
— Jack Kerouac
“Stop reading fiction – it’s
all lies anyway, and it doesn’t have anything to tell you that you don’t know
already.” (Yeah, like who needs Shakespeare, Charlotte or Emily Bronte, Lousia
May Alcott, F. Scot Fitzgerald, or any of the other great writers who made the
unforgivable mistake of writing that tacky and unnecessary fiction.)
— Will Self
Ernest Hemingway
“Actually if a writer needs a
dictionary he should not write. He should have read the dictionary at least
three times from beginning to end and then have loaned it to someone who needs
it. There are only certain words which are valid and similies are like defective
ammunition.” (I guess I better not look up the word “similies” then.)
— Ernest Hemingway
Substitute “damn” every time
you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing
will be just as it should be.
– Mark Twain
Immature poets imitate. Mature
poets steal.
– C.S. Lewis
All the information you need
can be given in dialogue.
– Elmore Leonard
Grammar is the Grave of
Letters.
– Elbert Hubbard
Maybe you have some terrible advice you found from a
famous author—bring it! I loved these quotes. Just when you hold an author you
love up on that pedestal, be prepared for the day they said something really
stupid just like the rest of us.
Sarah J. McNeal (not a famous author)
Sarah
J. McNeal is a multi-published author of several
genres including time travel, paranormal, western and historical fiction. She
is a retired ER and Critical Care nurse who lives in North Carolina with her
four-legged children, Lily, the Golden Retriever and Liberty, the cat. Besides
her devotion to writing, she also has a great love of music and plays several
instruments including violin, bagpipes, guitar and harmonica. Her books and
short stories may be found at Prairie Rose Publications and its imprints Painted
Pony Books, and Fire Star Press. Some of her fantasy and paranormal books may
also be found at Publishing by Rebecca Vickery and Victory Tales
Press. She welcomes you to her website and social media:
