Books as Adjuncts
September 6, 2021

I just finished reading J. Michael Straczynski's book, "Becoming a Writer,
Staying a Writer," which I received recently as a gift. It's a well-written and
interesting read and there are a several insights and hints and tips I intend to
make use of. There were also chapters that applied mostly to scriptwriting which
offered interesting glimpses into a kind of writing I've never done, but that
really didn't speak to me.

That's about par for the course for any writing book I've ever read. Writing
books are like self-help books in that they all say generally the same things.
And just like self-help books, the usefulness of a particular book often comes
down to the unique marriage of the voice of the author and the mind of the
reader. One reader feels a click!, and they understand now that bit of advice
they'd heard a hundred times before but discounted; while for another reader, a
different author speaks to them. This is the reason the self-help and
writing-advice genres are endless fonts of new books.

I'm not trying to disparage writing books when I say this. They've been useful
at several stages in my writing journey and I have a number of them on my
shelves right now. In addition, I keep a commonplace book into which I copy
passages and quotes from writing books--even the ones I ultimately don't
keep--so I can refer to them later. They can, indeed, be quite useful if used
properly.

But books on writing should be considered adjuncts, secondary to
butt-in-chair-words-on-paper work and wide reading and being part of a critique
group. They are, in my experience, most helpful when you've plateaued and trying
to figure out how to improve your writing skills. You've been wrestling with
some problem, some difficulty in your writing that you can't put your finger on.
Then, when reading some or another writer's thoughts on creating characters, or
plots, or scenes, you get a sudden insight into what you'd been doing wrong and
how to correct it.

Writing books are not magic, though. There is no one book you can read that will
make you a writer. Even reading them all couldn't make you one. Becoming a
writer is a long, sometimes painful, process of work and growth and more work
and more growth. Writing books play a part in that process, but aren't and can't
be a substitute for it.

(c) 2021 by Andrew Gudgel 
email: contact [at] andrewgudgel.com