10 Famous Writers Contradict Common Writing Advice
People love to tell writers how to write. They’re mostly wrong
Man, people sure love to write writing tips.
I guess it makes sense on a writer’s site. No one sells all beef hamburgers at a vegetarian convention, if you hear what I’m saying.
Problem is, half the time they’re regurgitating old tips they found on the internet and don’t really even know what they mean.
The other half, they’re just plain wrong.
Here. Let me show you. Straight from the mouths of people who actually write (or wrote) for a living.
1. There’s no “right” way to write says Atwood
People love to tell writers “how” to write. The most common tip is to write first, edit later. Get it all down first. Margaret Atwood disagrees.
“The right way of doing things is whatever happens to be working for you. Some people have to start at the beginning and go through in order until they get to the end. Other people are making pieces and then arranging them. Some people like to work on, at the page level, at the sentence level, and get that perfect before they move on. There is no set of surefire rules that are going to work for everyone.” — Margaret…
