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by Julian Gallo (writer), June 09, 2010

Credit: Dawn Endico
A Shelf of Books in a Bookstore

One writer's experience with the plethora of books on writing. Do they actually do more harm than good? It depends on what you aspire to.

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything for this site. To tell you the truth, I miss it quite a bit. There are two reasons. The first is that although there are a ton of things happening in this country and around the world as of late, I don’t feel I can offer anything interesting or different to the discussion. Put simply, it seems everything is going to hell in a handcart and it’s enough to make you want to just shut it off, turn away, close your eyes and cover your ears. If it isn’t the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, it’s all the other crap going on in the world. The second reason, and the main one, is that I’ve been hard at work writing over the past couple of months. I already finished a first draft of one novel and now I am making significant progress on the first draft of another. I feel the second one is stronger so I shelved the other one for the time being. So although I am very up to date as far as the calamities in this world, I’ve been too busy to think about writing about any of it, although I now think I should have.

I still consider myself something of a novice. I am still learning, despite having quite a few poems and poetry books published over the years. I really want to concentrate on fiction writing and this is where I really feel I could use to learn some things about the craft. So what does one usually do? Some will take some writing classes, others will join workshops, groups, etc. I’ve never done any of that and to tell you the truth, I’ve always been hesitant to join one. Not that I care about criticisms. It goes with the territory and the whole idea behind these classes and groups is to get the criticism a writer desperately needs. After all, we are often “too close” to our own work and we need a constructive voice (and eyes) to help us see any faults or problems the work may have that we may not notice (or be willing to notice). My hesitation has always been the fact that in many of these groups one is often confronted with the problem of having to listen to criticism that isn’t constructive but rather listening to the instructor tell you what kind of book you should be writing. In other words, they often want you to write the book they want you to write, not help you with the book you want to write. Others may disagree but this is how I feel about it personally.

So what else does one do? There are numerous books on writing out there that may offer some help. So over the past couple of weeks, I took it upon myself to purchase a few of these, read through them and see what I can learn from them. Being a musician, I know one can never know everything and can always learn something, the same should be true for writing (or any other art form) as well, right? So, I began to read, “study”, mine these books for anything that would help guide me in my transition from being primarily a writer of poetry towards a writer of fiction. What I learned bothered me a whole lot.

It seems to me that these books are merely “How To” books, designed to “teach” the writer that there is only one way to approach the art of fiction. Many, if not all of these books, all say the same thing, which basically boils down to this: Your protagonist must have a conflict, the action should start immediately, he must have an antagonist, he must learn something by going through the conflict, and he must be a changed person through an explosive, powerful ending. This is all fine, that is if you aspire to be the next Robert Ludlum or Dan Brown but what about those writers who are not? Is fiction really only limited to writing exciting suspense/action/thriller stories? Or is there room for something else? And if so, where are the books giving tips on those? Apparently few and far between, if any at all. As a matter of fact, every “tip” these books offer will work fantastically if you are writing “The Bourne Identity” or “The Da Vinci Code.” No question. But as I read these books, it occurred to me that I have read literally hundreds of novels that follow absolutely none of these “tips”. Absolutely none. In fact, they seem to be the direct opposite of everything these books are telling you how you should approach the art of fiction.

With that said, I have no problem with genre fiction. In fact, some of my favorite writers are considered “Genre Fiction” writers, most of them in the Mystery/Hardboiled Detective” vein (Raymond Chandler, John D. McDonald, Mickey Spillane, Lawrence Block, James M. Caine, Dashiell Hammett, to name a few). I also enjoyed Philip K. Dick’s, Ray Bradbury’s and Harlan Ellison’s science fiction, and yes, I even enjoyed a Stephen King novel or two in my day. A good book is a good book, regardless of the genre. I’m not a “literary snob” and I think you can find some very interesting writing in many of these so-called “commercial fiction” books.

Let’s take a look at just one contemporary author, who has been very successful, who follows none of these “rules”. Paul Auster. He, in my opinion, is by far one of the better authors writing today and his books are imaginative, well written, original, thoughtful, and none of them follow the blue print listed in these books. If these books were the only way for one to approach the art of fiction, we would not have Mr. Auster’s great books to read, would we? Of course you could say that he’s an “anomaly” but there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of authors who have written amazing, well written, interesting, thoughtful works of fiction that do not follow any rules but their own. In other words, the authors simply wrote the books they wanted to write.

So what is the purpose of these books? They claim it’s to teach one how to write a “publishable work of fiction” and in order to do so, “these are the steps one must take” in order to achieve this. Sure, if you are working in one particular genre, i.e. Mystery, Action, Suspense, Thrillers, etc. But even in that genre there had been many who took the genre to higher levels (i.e. Raymond Chandler, Lawrence Block, Andrew Vacchs).

After reading these books I felt more comfortable with my original approach, and that is write the book you want to write. Try to be original and if you’re telling a story that’s been told a million times (what books really aren’t that?) then try to put a new spin on it. I believe that if you have the passion and you are serious about what you are doing it will come through in the writing. Does that guarantee that you will be the next world famous author? Of course not. It’s a very difficult business to break into, even to get someone to even listen to you much less read you. I am a firm believer in the idea that everyone has a story to tell. Especially if it is drawn from their own lives. It’s just a question of how it’s handled. These stories are far more interesting anyway, I think. The best novels I have read, in my opinion, follow none of these so-called “rules” and “tips” and yet hundreds and hundreds of novels which don’t follow these rules are published all the time. Unless you are specifically setting out to write the next “Da Vinci Code” or “Harry Potter” (and there’s nothing wrong with that if that’s what you feel you want to do), I suggest to use these books as merely a guide to maybe help you think of something you may not have thought of before, since after all, one can always learn something new. But don’t rely on them as the end all, be-all in the world of fiction writing. Many authors have succeeded by paying absolutely no attention to any of these “rules” of the road. Decide what it is you want to write and write it to the best of your ability. After that, it’s not in your hands, ultimately. But who knows? Perhaps you will succeed.

You really never know what could happen unless you try.

Read more articles on: books , books on writing , art of fiction , fiction writing

Julian Gallo is a writer for BrooWaha. For more information, visit the writer's website.