Sorry, Writers, There Is No Formula
Writing is the best form of learning.
There are countless books on writing that promise to teach you how to craft the perfect story. Even more influencers on YouTube claim they have the answer. There’s only one way to write a bestseller, and for $99, I’ll share the secret.
But writing isn't like fixing a clogged sink. There's no step-by-step process to follow.
Save the Cat is a pretty helpful book, but it’s not a user manual. Brandon Sanderson has great insight on his YouTube channel, but obeying his every word won’t lead you to the promised land.
You might follow every piece of advice and still end up with a dud. Meanwhile, someone who's never written before, and certainly never read a book about craft, might create something unconventional that becomes a sensation.
You can't rely on a formula to create an award-winning comic or novel.
You can’t enter pacing and character development into a calculator.
There's no magic pill for great storytelling.
A story either works or it doesn’t.
Writing is an art. You can only improve by writing. By finishing a project and examining it to see where you might improve, and then starting a new one.
Share your work with an editor, peer, or friend. Talk about what works and what doesn’t. Then keep those lessons in mind as you draft your next story. Challenge yourself to make every story better than the previous one.
Write. Publish. Repeat.
“Challenge yourself to make the next story better than the last one.”
I feel this. I feel like each story I write becomes more and more complex/competent than the last. But I resist the urge to go back and change the other stories out of respect for who I was at the time when I wrote them. I’m OK with the reality that my first stories are going to be shit, and would rather commit to writing my next story better than the last one. Is that a good instinct?
Thank you for saying that, James.
It feels like a hopeful writer could easily get tangled up in all the advice, the guides, the techniques, getting pushed and pulled around by different, even well-meaning, tutorials.
It's important to learn the foundational elements of storytelling but the advanced techniques and formulas aren't for everyone. I guess you have to find your own way to craft a story.
The best advice I've ever heard (forgot the source, sadly) is 'finish the shitty 1st draft'.
No 1st draft is perfect, often they are shitty, and the craft and magic of writing (and where the good stuff comes out) is in the rewrite and the edit. So finish those shitty 1st drafts! Rescue it in the rewrite!