Bupkis and not

I've written about writing advice before, and it's an interesting thing. A lot of writing advice (like any advice) is bupkis. Sometimes it's even detrimental. At the same time it can be useful. Confusing? The reason is simple. Most writing advice comes from a writer's personal experience which is limited. Even the most experienced writers can only tell you what they've experienced.

But taken at it's root, most advice can be helpful.

For example, I've heard many writers say, "Your first book is always terrible. Get over it. Write the book and then move on to the next one." or "You have to write a million words before you're any good."

At the core, this is good advice. It says: "Writing is a skill that takes time to learn." and "Keep moving forward."

The truth is that your first book may be terrible in some ways, but throwing it away isn't always the answer. The trick is to keep improving your skills. You have to write a first book. Otherwise you could never write a second, third, fourth, and so on. Through writing, you will naturally improve. But even if you write a hundred books, you could still get stuck in some terrible habits and you wouldn't necessarily be a better writer.

So yes, you should keep writing. But it is possible that your first book is actually brilliant in some aspect. What you need to do is keep learning the skills of writing. One way to do that is to write more books. Another way is to do specific exercises to improve different aspects of your writing. I personally started out writing scripts which made me focus on plot and dialogue. Those are two of my strengths. Description? That's an area where I'm constantly struggling to improve.

One final key is to find someone to help you recognize A) where you need to improve, and B) what good writing is.

Having a good mentor, writing group, editor, teacher, or critic can help you recognize where your weaknesses are. Reading successful writing, essays, writing manuals, blogs, podcasts from professional authors or editors, all of these can help you learn what good writing is (Which is highly subjective in many cases and genre specific). It is essential that you find some way to evaluate your writing and create a pathway to bettering yourself.

Your first book may be amazing, but it probably needs work. It probably also needs work that you can't give it right away because you as the author probably need some work yourself. Listen to writing advice to find the best path. Try it out, and then discard the advice that doesn't work for you. Because even though writing advice can be bupkis, ignoring everything might be just as bad.

Good luck, and keep writing.