Member-only story
The Myth of the Self-Taught Writer
Believing it may be holding you back
Is the writing industry just out to sell you things?
A writer whose friendship, critiques of my work, and world view I treasure recently told me about a webinar she had watched. It was about writing and had been quite useful to her.
And yet, she had thoughts. Doubts, maybe. The writer who offered the webinar laid out a specific process to follow for designing the plot of your novel. Useful, yes, but it also leaned a bit to the dogmatic side. Apologetically, since I’m a writing teacher and coach, my friend wondered aloud to me if this was what those of us active in the writing industry actually did:
Do we make up processes and exercises and techniques just to be different? To have a unique point of view, a unique approach to sell? To have A signature thing that we pitch? She suspected this was the case.
I begged to differ. I offered the idea that many experts come up with a solution that works for them and then share it, and I stand by this opinion. But my friend is correct that writing is an industry and it is full of experts waiting to advise you. (Including me.)
And what is wrong with that?
