Writing Advice From Famous Authors Part 1

Honestly, whenever I read writing advice from a famous, successful author, I feel like this.

What is this magic?

What is this magic?

That said, I think some authors stand out in terms of how direct and immediately useful their advice is. So this series of posts about writing advice from famous authors is going to be my list of them, in no particular order.

The first author I want to talk about is Cassandra Clare (the pen name of Judith Rumelt). The New York Times bestselling author of The Mortal Instruments series, Clare has sold over 10 million books. While she cuts a controversial figure amongst many writers and readers, she has an excellent section on her website purely devoted to writing advice. I also really appreciate the unique structure of her advice. While I will certainly always turn to Stephen King’s famous On Writing when I want to sit down and feel like I’m absorbing greatness, or the fantastic Art of War for Writers by James Scott Bell when I want a quick hit for inspiration, Clare’s FAQ style advice is great for when I’m in the middle of a writing bog and want to get out quickly.

While the way it’s worded sounds like it’s catering towards people who are very new to their writing career (eg. But I still don’t understand how to write a novel?), taking a closer look at the content reveals some great resources, links, and honest advice. Clare is someone who recognises that while she has a method that works for her, it won’t work for everyone, so she’ll almost always link you to other opinions/perspectives.

Favourite quote (in response to the dreaded question: Help! I have writer’s block! What do I do?) Here’s Clare’s response:

I wish I could tell you. If there were an easy fix for writer’s block, no one would have it.

My sole real observation on the topic of block is that writer’s block isn’t a disease. It’s a symptom of the disease. There is something causing your writers block: you’ve gone down the wrong road in your plot, you haven’t learned how to outline, you’re trying to make yourself write something you don’t really want to write,  you’re depressed or stressed, etc. Figure out the cause and fix that and the symptom will probably go away. Now, I don’t know how useful that is. Probably not nearly as useful as this essay by Elizabeth Moon, which strikes me as one of the few useful things I’ve ever read on the topic.


 

So how about you? Who are your favourite authors for writing advice?