My question is: What's the most interesting, or least likely, person/place/thing you've gotten writing advice from?
My most interesting piece of writing advice came from a Starbucks 'The Way I see It" cup, specifically this one:
The Way I See It #?
"When I began writing, the words that inspired me were these: 'A writer is someone who has written today.' If you want to be a writer, what's stopping you?"
J.A. Jance, crime novelist
Reading that little quote was kind of like an epiphany for me--it gave me the nudge (well, eventually) I needed to start writing not just snippets and scenes but A Book, and whenever I started to feel self-conscious while writing, it gave me permission to keep going.I wonder what would've happened if I had gotten a cup about skydiving instead.
So what about you? Did a candy wrapper teach you how to use action verbs? Did your grandma rip your rough draft to shreds (in a good way)?
15 comments:
Love that quote, Rebecca.
I get a lot of my best writing "advice" from reading books and watching movies that AREN'T any good. It's interesting for me to pick them apart and figure out what it is that doesn't work for me, and then I make sure I'm not doing those things in my own writing.
So cool about the Starbucks cup.
I can't think of any "out of the box" places I got advice, but my first crit partner said something when I struggled to transition from my first "safer" books to my next harder ones. She said, "Write what you know first. Then write what you love." I do agree, writing "closer to home" to begin with can help a writer tap into their personal writing voice. Then stretch the limits of that later.
Yet one more reason to spend crazy money on Starbucks. It makes me feel a little better knowing I might get smarter from that grande latte, too. :)
I wish I could remember getting advice from a cool place like that but I'm drawing a blank. I recently had an Aha! moment while watching a sitcom, which is so completely different from the book I'm working on. Yet it got me unstuck.
Some of the best advice I got came from my crappy laptop, when it crashed and took my entire book with it (this was years ago, not the crash that just happened). I had the right idea, but the story just wasn't working. So I was forced to start from scratch and to rethink everything.
Oh, and there's Stephen King's "kill your darlings" type advice. Sometimes plots and characters need to go and it's kind-of liberating hacking away at a manuscript.
really interesting topic, but I'm also drawing a blank. will come back. *dashes off to think*
Yes, this is a difficult question! You've stumped quite a few of us, Rebecca! What a cool place to get writing advice, though. :)
I love when my coffee gives me advice. It brings on a new meaning to "coffee talk."
I think the best piece of writing advice I got from the strangest place was "It's quality, not quantity." Slater said it in Dazed and Confused. I used to write it on top of every rough draft.
I agree with Katy. I get a lot of "advice"/help from watching crappy TV shows or movies. I do the same thing, I pick them apart. I'm constantly analyzing and thinking 'I would have done that better.' Maybe it's not the best strategy, but I think it's helped!
I really like that quote too. Very true.
Yes - agreed - more reasons to go to Starbucks! Love the quote.
I get advice from everything (I think it's because everything's about ME- haha), but I definitely get a lot of "advice" from songs. Lately - it's Katy Perry's Firework. THAT keeps me going. :)
I was still a "partner" at the Bux when those cups became a thing, and was surprised how often the quotations were interesting and relevant. So glad to see the coffee-beast claws reach out so far (and so helpfully)!
Great question! I am not sure it counts as writing advice *exactly*, but when I was walking across campus after a rough grading session last year, I overheard someone complaining about missing their bus AGAIN that morning, and her friend replied, "I think if you keep missing it, it's not your bus."
Which I think is good advice for just LIFE, that you have to have realistic expectations, and if you want to have something bigger happen (like catching an earlier bus, or actually finishing your first draft/revision/query, whatever), then you have to WORK for it.
cool question - I get advice from everywhere - it isn't good advice but I do get it.
The best is from the golf course ( see my post 'don't count your blisters')
See if you look at a rejection slip as a blister it doesn't have much power.
I play golf and I have wracked up alot of blisters doing it - I don't plan to stop playing just because I got a few blisters and I don't stop writing just because I get a rejection.
What a great source of inspiration. I've been underlining a lot from On Writing Lately. Favorite this week:
"You must not come lightly to the blank page. I'm not asking you to come reverently or unquestioningly; I'm not asking you to be politically correct or cast aside your sense of humor... this isn't a popularity contest, it's not the moral Olympics, and it's not church. But it's writing, damn it, not washing the car or putting on eyeliner. If you can take it seriously, we can do business. If you can't or won't, it's time for you to close the book and do something else.
Wash the car, maybe."
The Work is Not a Job blog. It's a little cheesy, but several of the pieces there really helped me solidify the idea of writing as job versus hobby.
the weirdest place I received writing advice from: a youth group in middle school. I wasn't a writer then, but the pastor was talking about this phrase that has stuck with me. It's ten words, two letters each. Simple and sublime.
"If it is to be, it is up to me."
I apply it to just about everything in my life.
Thanks for all of the great advice from interesting sources, guys! This has got to be one of my favorite RTWs.
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