Struggling Authors

Me again; trying to get my name up on every topic in an attempt to liven things up a bit.

This is not so much a 'how to' as a 'should one'.
There are a lot of people making money out of books on how to write. There are also a lot of web-sites that offer critiques and reviews which help writers improve their work. I find them useful but I think we aspiring writers should be careful. Many books were written successfully before the advent of the 'How to..' culture.
What worries me is that they are not so much about how to write as much as about how to get published. A distinction of which we should be wary.
We could all end up turning out the same homogenous drivel. If all the advice I was given was taken by all authors then we would never have had published ANY Dickens, Catch 22, Master and Margarita, War and Peace...I am sure you could add your own list of works that broke the 'rules'.
When one takes advice it needs to be weighed against one's literary integrity.

Hi Graham,

Just to add to what you said...

Even though those books you mentioned broke the mainstream rules - they still sell very quickly on the second hand market - showing that they are still very popular but would never necessarily described as 'best sellers'.

It shows that quality stands the test of time and that conformity to a formula may be the death of real creativity. I wonder how many of the current top 10 will be selling for more than a penny in a couple of years time. (Harry Potter excluded


RG

Hi, it would be useful to know other writer's opinions on some of the Hot To... books - I've found that the reviews on sites such as Amazon tend not to be very good at explaining whom books would best be suited for.

I recently read Hot To Write Damn Good Fiction by James N. Frey, and would imagine it to be suitable for all novel writers, irrespective of genre. It's an engaging read, and packed with useful hints. On the other hand, I'm half way through The Art Of Fiction by John Gardner, and I can't fathom it out for love nor money. It seems to be geared more towards experienced writers of literary fiction rather than the starter genre writer.

I've not read any other How To... books, but if anyone can recommend a great one that's aimed at thriller writers then I'd love to hear about it.

Oops. I meant HoW not HoT.

Freudian slip?

I have to say that the only sort of 'How To' book on writing I've read is 'A Novel in a Year' by Louise Doughty (and I didn't even finish reading that if I'm honest). I did a Open Uni course last year, which was fantastic, but I kind of resent being told how to write, cos everyone has their own style, and rules are made to be broken!

I'd recommend Elizabeth George's book, Write Away. I like to read books on writing written by other writers so I get a glimpse of their writing life. Not everything she says applies to me and I wouldn't alter the way i do things just because another writer says it should be done this way instead, but I love it when I can sit there reading someone's else's ways of writing and I'm going, 'oh yeah, I do that!' - makes me think I was doing it right all along!