Complex Numbers

Getting It Write

Every once in a while I get lazy. Okay, you got me - I'm always lazy. But today, very little commentary is needed.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/may/13/so-you-want-to-be-a-writer-colum-m...

So you want to be a writer? Essential tips for aspiring novelists
How to write a killer opening line. Why Google is not research. When to rip it up and start again. Whatever you do, just write!

Since you're here reading this, I'm going to go ahead and assume that you're a writer. No one really knows what they're doing, and it's a lifelong learning process, so it doesn't hurt to go back to basics - if, indeed, these are basics.

There are no rules. Or if there are any rules, they are only there to be broken. Embrace these contradictions. You must be prepared to hold two or more opposing ideas in the palms of your hands at the same time.

That's actually good advice for a lot of things. While people who embrace contradictions are slammed as "hypocrites," the fact is we're all hypocrites. Being able to have two opposing viewpoints is a hallmark of humanity, not a condemnation of it.

Don’t write what you know, write towards what you want to know.

I always say "Don't write what you know; know what you write." (The above quote contains a comma splice, which breaks the rules, but hey, this author claims there are no rules. Fine.) Anyway, this amounts to the same thing.

Writing a character into being is like meeting someone you want to fall in love with.

Eh. Maybe. I'd add this to the section: just as you have to embrace your contradictory nature, characters have to have internal contradictions, too. Or they're boring. The article touches on this with "Complicate them. Conflict them."

Try not to use dialogue to convey information, or at least a slab of obvious information.

There is only one way to convey information: put it in the writing. One subset of this is to provide exposition. Another subset is to have characters explain things. Neither is always right. But there is such a thing as too much information.

In any case, as with all writing advice, take it or leave it. I just thought this particular article, ancient though it is (2017), was particularly thorough. Unlike this blog entry.