All we really want is some good advice

Duane Swierczynski relates how a few choice words of wisdom from an editor pal completely changed his burgeoning writing career around:

[He] was basically telling me to play to my strengths — for one thing, my knowledge of Phildelphia. He was also reminding me not to take myself too seriously, and not soak the thing in too many buckets of blood. (He knew I was a big horror geek.)

But the real gem is the thing about never letting the reader get too comfortable. That’s some seriously great advice, especially in the suspense/crime genre, because the moment you let the reader relax, that gives him/her an excuse to close your book. My favorite novels have a way of never complete releasing the tension; it’s always there, goading you to read just another page. And just another one. And just another one… because you have to find out how it turns out.

Lots of people are chiming in with comments, but my favorite so far is Victor Gischler’s, on the hoary axiom of writing what you know: "Writing what we know is useless if we don’t know anything."

I think I may frame *that* phrase above my workspace and stare at it until something resembling a publishable manuscript is finished…

Although in my own case, I think the best advice I received (fairly recently) I’ll paraphrase as follows: don’t rush. Because I’ve had hints dropped by several people that it might not be a bad idea, so to speak, to strike while the iron is hot on this whole darn blogging thing. And while I suppose that would be nice, if I had to choose a career path, I’d much rather have hers than hers any day.