ADVICE COLUMN?

by John M. Floyd

According to Wikipedia, an advice column is, appropriately enough, “a column in a magazine or newspaper written by an advice columnist (colloquially known in British English as an agony aunt, or agony uncle if the columnist is a male).”

If you regularly visit this blog, you might already know that my columns here don’t usually offer a lot of advice. (No agony nephews or nieces for me.) What they offer, if anything, is probably more of a diversion from the more pressing issues in our daily lives. Some might call that entertainment, and if they do, that’d suit me fine. I do try, though, to include things that might appeal to folks who like to read or write crime fiction, in any of its many forms.

You are but a humble priest, grasshopper

Today I suppose I’m talking more to the writers than the readers (although I’ve found that what interests one group often interests the other as well). What I’d like to do is list a few of the best pieces of writing/marketing advice I have received from fiction authors over the years.

Let me say that another way: If you are among those odd people who choose to regularly put stories on paper, or on the computer screen, with the intention that they will be read and appreciated by others . . . here are some rules that I’ve found important to remember:

A writer’s dozen

1. Write the kind of stories that you like to read. You do not necessarily have to write “what you know.”

2. Start your story with an attention-getter. One way to do that is to start as far along in the story (in the action) as you can.

3. Never sell “all rights” to your work. Most markets acquire “first” or “one-time” rights. Besides, I’ve found that publications demanding all rights will sometimes agree to first rights instead, if that’s requested.

4. Clarity is more important than anything else, in a story.

5. Don’t be afraid to use the word “said.” (“Fancy that,” he ruminated.)

6. Never pay “reading fees.” In fact, don’t ever pay anyone anything to consider or publish your work.

7. Expect rejections, don’t dread them.

8. To come up with story ideas or plot ideas, ask yourself “What if?”

9. Endings must meet only one requirement: they must be satisfying. They don’t always have to be happy, or life-changing, or tie up all the loose ends.

10. The best way to write well is: (1) read a lot and (2) write a lot.

11. Don’t overuse adverbs, adjectives, or exclamation points. Actually, try not to overuse anything in a manuscript.

12. Don’t give up. There’s a lot of attrition among writers — so don’t attrite.

I usually list those points, along with others, in a summary sheet that I give to students in my writing courses, at the end of our final session. It’s sort of an “if you forget everything else you’ve learned, don’t forget this” reminder. Do all of those aspiring writers remember those things, or even keep the sheet? Of course not. But I bet some of them do, and I always feel better for having made the effort.

NOTE: One piece of advice that I didn’t include here, and probably should have, comes from Elmore Leonard’s “ten rules of writing”: Leave out the parts that people skip. That is, of course, easier said than done.

Do you have any pearls of wisdom from other writers, things that might have helped you in your own wordsmithing endeavors?

When the going gets tough . . .

As my CB colleagues and I have pointed out many times, there is – unfortunately — no magic formula, no secret checklist that will make us successful writers. The only thing we can do is keep trying: keep reading, writing, and submitting to editors and publishers.

But advice from the pros never hurts.