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And of course that question would be, “What is the correct way to write a book?”
I think this is the question that keeps writers up at night, whether we’re published or not. Is there a right way to write a book?
Sure, there are LOADS of How-To books out there that will say things like, “Don’t head hop,” “Stay away from adverbs,” “Don’t overdo your description,” which we all take as gospel truth…then we go to the library and promptly find that NYT best-selling novel (or novels) that set fire to all the rules.
I feel like maybe there are no rules, save be true to the story you’re trying to tell, and to the characters telling that story.
Which, as I stare at page 10 of my Work in Progress, I’m finding much harder to do than say. It would be ever so helpful if there were some hard and fast rules I could adhere to, but there aren’t any. Perhaps that’s why writing is so difficult and why only 15 out of 100 people who set out to write a book will do it, because the act of writing asks us to block out the world, the reviewers, the experts, the ones who came before, and to quiet ourselves to listen and follow the soft voice that only lives inside of us.