Southern Fried Chicas

By Sela Carsen

Like all of us, I’m a reader. I always have a book nearby and my tastes are fairly eclectic. Mostly genre lit, but I do wander off the romance path pretty regularly.

There are things that I don’t read, however. No, I’m not talking about horror or true crime or anything like that. I’m talking about books on writing. Craft books.

I feel kind of bad admitting that, to be honest. I feel like these are books I should read. Rather the way that I feel I should read Moby Dick. Not that it’s ever likely to happen, but still.

When writers get together, we toss out titles and authors like Anne Lamott or Chris Vogler and I just smile and nod. Nope. Never read ‘em. Probably never will.

I tried Vogler’s book. Snoozefest. I actually did read Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. It made me mad. Did anyone else notice how they took a vibrant little passage from F. Scott Fitzgerald and edited ALL the voice out of it? Turned it into a paragraph of perfectly acceptable, perfectly dead prose. No thanks. That kind of self help, I can do without.

I’ve picked through various books on character and plot and scenes and sequels, but I’ve never gleaned much from them. Bits and pieces here and there, perhaps. But usually I’m left with the feeling that 1) this is something I learned from a critique partner or another writer, or 2) this is something that won’t work for me.

I’ve tried all the methods. Free writing, plotting, outlining, synopsizing. Three act, five act, and nine act structure. Character interviews and character sketches. I even tried directed dreaming.

Nothing. Nada. And so, after all this time, I’ve learned the one thing that all the craft books in the world can’t teach.

Follow your gut.

You can read a whole shelf of writing books, but not one can teach you how to write. I think you learn a lot more by reading good fiction. And by putting pen to paper yourself.

That’s not to say I don’t struggle with my writing process, which is crap. But the thing is, it’s my process. It’s a process that works for me, in its uniquely craptabulous way.

I start and stop stories, I write haphazardly, I recast character and rewrite from word one. I keep scenes in my file that I think will never see the light of day – and then something will trigger an idea and in a month, I have a new novella. Albeit one that usually bears very little resemblance to the scene that started it all.

But there’s not a book on earth that can teach you how YOU write. I’m not saying people should never read craft books. Far from it. You never know where you’ll find a tidbit of information that will suddenly unlock a whole new world for you.

I will say that not every book will be worth something to you. For instance, I mentioned my dislike of Self-Editing. One of my crit partners swears by it. It’s the first thing she recommends to new writers.

Me, I’m more likely to recommend Strunk & White’s Elements of Style and then On Writing by Stephen King. To me, it’s not a book on craft, but a book on how Stephen King became a writer. Other than a vehement dislike of adverbs and dialogue tags, King isn’t out there to teach you how to write complete sentences or where to get ideas or how to figure out what your character’s favorite color is.

Writing is what it is. And you only learn that from writing. Not from reading How To books.

Sela Carsen, despite her admittedly crappy writing process, has managed to sell four novellas to three different publishers. Her latest, HEART OF THE SEA, releases November 1 from Samhain Publishing.

This story is available as an e-book at My Bookstore and More. It’s also part of the LOVE & LORE anthology, available in print at bookstores nationwide.