There are countless authors who will adamantly proselytize their advice for other writers. And they will pass these commandments off as the rule of law. I believe it’s Stephen King who commands writers to write every day no matter what.

Other writing pundits will dictate that you must read voraciously or you can’t possibly be a good writer. If you’re not devouring books like a starving shark then you have no hope and can’t possibly write a good book.

And who are we to argue? I mean, we’re just fledgling authors, scrambling to grab whatever scraps of readership we can. We should totally listen to these paragons of the word, right?

Wrong.

First of all, I’m no expert. I’m not the pinnacle of writing prowess, and I’m nowhere near as successful as many authors.

But I know, without a doubt, what works for me. And I also know nobody else can tell me what works for me.

So, what should you do about writing advice? Well, first off, I acknowledge the irony in me giving writing advice about writing advice. And there is plenty of irony involved. However, what I’m about to tell you is important and I feel many writers have a difficult time embracing the concept. Anyway, here we go.

FOLLOW YOUR OWN WRITING PATH!

There, I said it. Now, what does it mean? Well, that gets a little more complex, because I can’t tell you that. It’s something you’ll have to figure out on your own, but I suspect, if you’re writing, you’re already familiar with some of it.

When someone asks me for advice, I tell them the same thing—follow your own path. I lay out some things that work for me and some things that don’t, but I tell them to find those same things for themselves.

For example, I generally only write on the weekends and in the morning. And I find I must get out of the house to write because, oddly enough, I find far less distractions than if I’m at home. No way will I ever suggest to anyone else that they must do this.

A prime example I can give is a particular book I was reading earlier this year. Several of my friends raved about it and one said it was his favorite book of all time. Its reviews online were stellar and it was a best-seller. So, I gave it a shot.

After three hundred pages, I DNF’d it. I gave up and donated the book to a little free library where, hopefully, someone else would enjoy it.

So, what happened? Well, of those first three-hundred pages, very little happened. There was so much exposition and world-building, and I kept waiting for the anvil to drop but it never happened.

Now, I will say that the world the author built was phenomenal and it had such promise, but when it just never ended, I couldn’t keep reading. I went online for a synopsis and found this book was essentially two books—the first half being world-building with little happening, and the second half was where everything went off the rails and was a nonstop roller coaster.

So, why am I telling you this? Because popular writing advice is “grab the reader in the first paragraph” and this book absolutely did not do that. And, despite it not being to my liking, it’s sold far more copies of any book I’ve written and has an outstanding fanbase. The author waited for over three hundred pages to grab the reader, but it worked for him. It just goes to show you, absolute writing advice is absolute garbage.

Write the book you would read, whatever it is. Or don’t. I’m not the boss of you. There are readers out there for every book, regardless of the rules.

Follow your own writing path.

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