The Worst (and Best) Writing Advice I Ever Received
In which I discuss why one specific common piece of writing wisdom doesn’t work for me, yet I still practice it.
I really enjoy SF writer Gareth Powell’s Writer Wednesday entries on his Substack channel.
In these mid-week posts Gareth “invites another author over for a cup of tea, and asks them to share their nuggets of inspiration and advice.”
As well as finding most of the interviews entertaining and informative, it also gets me thinking about how I’d answer the questions.
One such question is “What’s the worst piece of writing advice you ever received?” And perhaps the most common answer is “Write every day.” To which I generally nod in silent agreement. In fact, I’ve been known to speak out against this particular cliche on writing panels at various conventions over the years.
When I first heard this phrase it was in conjunction with the rubric that if you write a page a day you can churn out a novel pretty quickly. So I took it as “write every day on your current project.”
The thing is the actual art of writing is the hardest part for me. I love the research, and enjoy having written; but sometimes I really have to work at getting the words down, especially with fiction. There are magical writing sessions where the words just flow, but they are outnumbered by the ones where it is quite frankly hard work.
I tried the page-a-day technique for a novel, and it quickly turned that project into a chore, I was applying self-pressure and stress that wasn’t healthy. It just didn’t fit the way that my muse works. Over time I’ve come to realize that I write in creative spurts - sure a deadline helps in managing the output, but I can’t just produce words on a regular repetitive basis.
So “write every day.” No. Doesn’t work for me.
BUT… and you knew that was coming.
It turns out I do write every day. This piece was inspired by reading ex-Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada's latest substack newsletter on his daily routine to keep his art skills sharp.
He does a quick sketch each morning to start the day and then inks it in the evening to close out his day.
As it turns out I do something similar, but with words, not pictures.
As part of my ongoing promotional efforts for The James Bond Lexicon I post a daily extract from the book on various social media platforms. It’s a regular habit that I do while having breakfast. In fact, breakfast is my social media catch-up and posting time.
After breakfast, the first thing I do when I get into my office is post the next Batman on the Cover entry as a warm-up.
My day job of running THE CONTENT POOL, my enterprise content consulting business, means that I’m crafting emails, working on marketing messages, writing articles, or writing as part of working on client projects pretty much each day.
During the day I keep the tabs open for the current week’s edition of this newsletter and drop notes into it as thoughts occur during the day. I end each day by tidying up those notes, or maybe doing a quick polish on a podcast script.
After dinner Monday through Thursday it’s generally back into the office to work on one of the various writing projects I have underway. Is it the same project each night? No, it can vary from evening to evening, that way I have variety in what is top of mind creatively on any given day, plus I’m not adding that unwanted pressure.
And to top it off I use Google Docs as my primary writing space so this newsletter and whatever projects I have in progress are always available on my phone if an idea or thought pops into my mind while I’m out and about.
So it turns out that I do in fact “write every day,” just not in the way that I first interpreted the phrase.
So Alan’s writing mantra…
Do I write every day on the current work-in-progress? - Nope, doesn’t work for me.
Do I write every day, even if it’s just a quick post on social media or capturing a passing thought? - Definitely.
Other Stuff
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Brabazon Bits
Rather than working on the manuscript, it’s been a week of research emails following up on the conversations I had during my recent visit to Airbus.
Each person I’ve reached out to has been very helpful, and if they couldn’t answer specific questions, they have provided leads to others who may help. That cascade of contacts led to conversations with Aviation Heritage, the Royal Aeronautical Society, and Farnborough Air Sciences Trust, as well as the British Aerospace and Rolls Royce heritage teams, plus leads to a couple of museums that may have some Brabazon artifacts.
These sorts of research networks are invaluable on a non-fiction project like the Brabazon book.
As a follow up to my initial Airbus meetings I also sent three chapters to the Airbus Heritage team this week for their review. Now I nervously await their feedback.
Pages and Screens
Book Read in 2023 - “Usagi Yojimbo Book 4 - The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy” by Stan Sakai.
This volume starts in the thick of the action with a frantic chase scene, and the pace never really lets up.
The action throughout is expertly choreographed, staged, and executed be it horse chases, ronin vs ninja clashes, formal samurai challenges, or the mass storming of a castle; it all delivers in terms of spectacle and in service of the story.
In between the action Sakai weaves a informative tale of the 17th Century Japanese political landscape full of fully realized characters performed by a cast of the most relatable anthropomorphic animals.
You don’t need to have read the previous three books to thoroughly enjoy this one. If you’re a fan of the Seven Samurai / Magnificent Seven style cast building and good swordplay then you’ll enjoy this outing of the warrior rabbit and friends.
Movies watched in 2023 - Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang
We had the grandkids over to stay last weekend, and when they are with us we like to take the opportunity to introduce them to some of the movies we enjoyed as kids.
This week we decided to start their Ian Fleming education with a viewing of Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang
When I pointed out that the movie they were watching was based on a book written by the man in the portrait over the fireplace, they were less than impressed.
But they did love the movie. They were soon into it, both singing along, and cheering at the right points. Booing the child-catcher, and asking some very astute questions about how the villagers could let the nasty Baroness make them have to hide the children in the first place.
When I mentioned this on Facebook, several friends noted how much the child-catcher character had also freaked them out as kids.
But then my oldest friend, Mike, responded with this fun memory - “I remember that when the film came out, your mum and dad took us both to see it at Sale Odeon. For me the scariest part was not the child catcher - almost a comic villain - it was where the car went over the cliff. Largely because that was where the intermission fell. Not so much a cliff hanger as a cliff diver, until after the kia-ora.”
Gill and I had another more recent encounter with the titular vehicle when on a trip back to the UK in 2019 we visited the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu. As while as having one of the screen-used vehicles in the museum, they had a replica that gave rides between the museum property and the manor house. When we showed the girls the photos of that, the day after watching the movie, they were eventually impressed. - Sorry, Ian.
Before They Were Beatles Updates
The Before They Were Beatles podcast - While we haven’t recorded or published any new episodes for a while now, I’m delighted to see that we continue to pick up new listeners, and the podcast downloads are chugging along at a steady state.
Some unforeseen family events have slowed down the the research for our new upcoming series, The Forgotten Beatles - but it is on the way, it may just take a little longer than I originally anticipated.
The September issue of the Before They Were Beatles newsletter is now online with a focus on John Lennon’s boyhood, and lifelong, best friend, Pete Shotton - who will play a pivotal role in the evolving Beatles story.
You can sign up for a subscription below.
Weekly Web Round-Up
Forest Comics - We’ve added a load more Doctor Who books this week, featuring adventures of the fifth (Peter Davison), seventh (Sylvester McCoy), ninth (Christopher Ecceleston), and tenth (David Tennant) Doctors. You can see them and the rest of our current offerings HERE.
Batman On The Cover - The journey through Batman’s comics publishing history continues this week as we move into June 1968 with reprint editions published in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, and Lebanon. - No real standouts this week as they were all reprints of previous US covers.
Where on the Web is Alan?
You can now find links to all the places you can find me online, websites, newsletters, social media, and more in a single LINKS page on my personal website.
As always, thanks for joining me this week. If you know someone else who might enjoy the contents of this week’s newsletter, or just my weekly ramblings in general - please feel free to share by clicking the button below.
See you next time
Alan J. Porter