Oh, You Can’t Learn to Write Fiction? Really?

Every now and again I hear some author putting down how-tos. "You can only learn to write by writing," they'll say. "Don't waste your time studying writing books. Just put a page in front of you and write!"

Which strikes me as making as much sense as saying, "You can only learn to do brain surgery by doing brain surgery. Don't waste your time studying brain surgery. Just cut open heads and dig!"

Uh-huh. Excuse me if I show a preference for a sawbones who has studied under the tutelage of experienced surgeons.

Another trope is, "No one ever learned to write by reading about writing." Really? Isn't that a bit cheeky, unless you've interviewed every published writer out there?

The writer I know best – me – absolutely learned to write by reading how-tos. I had been fed the bunk that "writers are born, not made" while in college, and I bought it, in part because I took a course from Raymond Carver and couldn't do what he did. (I didn't know at the time that there was more than one way to "do" fiction. I thought everybody had to pass through the same tunnel.)

When I finally decided I had to try to learn to write, even if I never got published, I went after it with a club. I started gathering books on writing, read Writer’s Digest religiously (especially Lawrence Block's fiction column), took some classes, and wrote every day. Living in L.A. it was required that I try screenwriting first, so I wrote four complete screenplays in one year, giving them to a film school friend, who patiently read them and told me they weren't working. But he didn't know why.

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Then one day I read a chapter in a book by the great writing teacher Jack Bickham. The book had been the featured title of the Writer’s Digest Book Club, of which I was a member. How glad I am now I was. Because I had an epiphany. Literally. Reading one of the chapters, light bulbs and fireworks went off inside my head, and I finally got it. Or at least a big part of it.

I was keeping a journal at the time, and wrote this:

I still get jazzed thinking about that moment. I wrote another screenplay, and that was the one my friend liked. The next one I wrote got optioned, and the one after that got me into one of the top agencies in town.

When I turned to novel writing, my second proposal got me a five book contract.

All because of something I read in a how-to book, and things I kept on learning after that.

That's not to say I might not have “gotten it” some other way (like trial and error over ten years or so). At the very least my studies saved me time. And that's the reason I write my how-to books and teach. It’s to save writers time, and give them the tools they need to make it in this game (and that applies to traditional or self-publishing).

"But you cannot learn to write fiction. . ."

Now it is quite true you can't just read how-tos, or go to classes, and get better without practice. You have to write on a regular basis and apply what you're learning.

Conversely, if you write blindly, without correction and education, you're most likely going to be turning wheels like that rodent in the cage. A lot of effort but getting nowhere.

"But you cannot learn to write fiction. . ."

Then why do so many former students of mine, with contracts, say the exact opposite? Have a look at what the critically acclaimed author Sarah Pekkanen has to say on the matter.

In protest of the naysayers, doubters and gadflies, I am taking my intensive, 2-day fiction writing workshop on the road. I am out to bring every writer who signs up to their next level. That cities and dates are:

Everything anyone wants to know, including links to the sign-up pages, can be found here:
James Scott Bell's 2-Day Fiction Writing Workshop