Guest Post: Eschew "How To" Writing Advice, Slow Down, and Observe

By Jessica Cortez

Perhaps the biggest disease that has spread throughout the world of published books–more so than the vampire craze even–is the self-help and how-to epidemic. Of course, the “For Dummies” series and others of its ilk are absolutely brilliant marketing schemes. They suggest fictitious quick fixes to tough problems. Today it seems that so many buy into the promise of the quick fix, simply because time is a non-renewable resource, and we often cannot slow down enough to solve the problems inherent in our lives, even the more important ones. But for a real writer, writing is essentially the only problem, and so the writer must, above all, slow down. Which is why I urge writers to throw out the “how-to” crap. Immediately.

The “how-to” oeuvre particularly plagues the writing advice niche market. When I was younger, I even bought some of these books myself, so I know how it is that they operate. Novelist and short story writer Richard Bausch wrote an absolutely riveting article about writing “how-tos” in this year’s Fiction/Essay edition of the Atlantic Monthly. He was spot on about its dangers.

While Bausch emphasizes reading the good stuff, which is perhaps the most important component in developing one’s craft, I would like to focus on another aspect of the writing process that so many seem to forget or overlook entirely. It’s fairly simple–observing. By that, I mean observing everything, which includes people, the way they respond to outside stimuli and other people, animals, and how they move. It’s important also to examine the physical world of objects and its interaction with people. And, above all, your own reaction to the intersection of all these things must be closely monitored.

Perhaps Ernest Hemingway explained this phenomenon best in an interview. When his interviewer asked him, “How can a writer train himself?”, Hemingway’s response was so simple and so clear. Here’s an excerpt:

“Listen now. When people talk listen completely. Don’t be thinking what you’re going to say. Most people never listen. Nor do they observe. You should be able to go into a room and when you come out know everything that you saw there and not only that. If that room gave you any feeling you should know exactly what it was that gave you that feeling.”

While Hemingway gives only a few specific examples of how one can put oneself on a look-out post, so to speak, don’t make the mistake of thinking that these chances for observation practice are limited to just people watching. The beauty of practicing observation is that you can do it literally anywhere. Your inner and outer surroundings are the stuff of good writing; they are in fact, its very atoms, its building blocks. In this sense, your office space as a writer, your work environment, is limitless.

To be sure, observing is tough, and you won’t find this sort of advice in any how-to book. But sometimes the most difficult exercises are the most instructive.

Jessica Cortez writes on the topics of online degree programs. Outside of writing, she enjoys listening to classical music and reading novels.

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Flickr photo courtesy of gerlos