Advice For Prospective Writers - How Valuable Is It Really?

When it comes to writing, one of the things there seems to be no shortage of is Experienced Writers ready and willing to dish up a variety of advice to Prospective Writers, and whilst some of this advice may indeed have a deliciously helpful flavor to it, there is much more of it is just plain old reheated leftovers.

Top of my " Isn't that kind of obvious?" list is the advice: always be certain you have a story to tell. I say we take it as read that if someone has reached the stage of even asking for advice from an Experienced Writer, then they have pretty much already decided they have a story to tell. Now, get out of here, Captain Obvious and stop wasting everyone's time.

My "Could you be more patronizing?" list is topped by the advice: tell your story in your own voice. Translated into plain English this can only mean, make sure what you want to write is not simply plagarized from someone else, because it can't possibly mean anything else. It can't be talking about your narrative style. The narrative styles available to writers - hardboiled detective, swooning heroine, galloping adventure etc etc etc - are finite in number. It is inevitable and unavoidable then that there will be some overlap of styles between writers. Originality in this context is more of a concept than a reality. Yes, you could attempt to write something that is steampunk swooning historical romance narrated by a hardboiled were-vampire, and I would be willing to bet that somebody, somewhere, at some point in time, has already beaten you to it. I would also be willing to bet that their work languishes at the bottom of some editor's slush pile where it will molder into dust, and quite rightly so, since even the thought of trying to read anything so mixed-up and mashed together is enough to send most of us screaming from the room.

So. What - if any - advice would I give to a Prospective Writer? Just one piece: make sure that you can spell. Seriously. If there is one thing almost guaranteed to make most editors and agents cringe and throw away your manuscript unread it is finding your work to be riddled with typos, spelling mistakes, and incidences of grammatical homicide. Editing is, of course, a chore that most writers detest doing for themselves but, unless you can afford to pay a commercial editor obscene amounts of money to do it for you, which most of us writers simply cannot, I would suggest that every Prospective Writer learns how to edit themselves. Use the money to invest in a word processing program with a good Spellchecker and get quickly accustomed to using it. There are some programs also offer a grammar-correction facility.

Let me enter a minor codicil here ... it is possible to commit grammatical homicide, dress it up as humorous or inventive narrative, and get away with it. Doing this successfully does, however, incur an element of time and practise. Short story writing is an invaluable training ground in this respect. The master of grammatical homicide is without a doubt Stephen King. He has been committing this otherwise heinous crime throughout his entire career and getting away with it in flagrantly spectacular fashion. He is a master, however, and cannot be imitated. Please do not even attempt to do this yourself at home.

And that's it. My only advice to the Prospective Writer. Well, apart from, " Don't do it. Go be something grown-up and sensible instead, something that won't drive you round the bend and see you wind up writing articles about giving advice to prospective writers."

I am Devon Marshall and I have been writing and publishing short stories, both within the LGBT market and mainstream market, for many years. My first published full-length novel, 'The Lesbian Vampire Chronicles' is out now and can be viewed at my website. I also have a second full-length novel, a detective thriller set in New Orleans, currently under consideration with a US publisher. Lately I have discovered the joys of blogging and am now the proud producer of two blogs.  
 
http://www.devonmarshallwrites.me.uk