The Marshall Plan

I have a copy of The Marshall Plan, and while there's some good advice inside, mostly it tells you how to write to a certain type of formula. It would definitely be beneficial to someone writing a quirky cozy or chick lit, but it wouldn't be much use to a thriller writer, for example.

Never read it but the love the title of the post and the spiderman dance. Though shouldn't Spidey be in mourning for Capt. Americaa?

What does a 1947 $20 billion relief package to Europe have to do with writing?

OK.OK. No, I haven't read it. But I'm of the mind that if you've read one generic genre "self-help" writing book, you've read them all.

Plan

I tend to believe how-to books of any kind only work well when you love the way the person who wrote the how-to book also writes fiction.

What James said. I should also add that Even Marshall himself, besides being an agent and writer of How To books, is the author of several cozy mysteries.

I firmly believe that if you aren't a good writer all the writing books in the world won't help. I also believe that if you are a good writer you won't need writing books.

Writing books

johnzakour said:

I firmly believe that if you aren't a good writer all the writing books in the world won't help. I also believe that if you are a good writer you won't need writing books.

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I don't know about needing writing books, but I do know some few of them have been extremely helpful to me. I have no doubt I could have succeeded without them, but I also have no doubt they made the trip easier and faster.

I'm a smart guy, and I'm a good writer, but I'm not smart enough or good enough to invent every good technique on my own. Nor do I have the time to read every novel ever written in order to systematically track down some of the techniques I've found very useful.

A good writing book is nothing more and nothing less than a textbook, and just as helpful to those who use them wisely as a textbook in any other field.

I read how-to books as a hobby. I think I said that in another thread. I read them less for the "how to," stuff which isn't going to do me much good and more to read about authors whom I may be interested in, or may become interested in.

I said, in the other thread (whichever one) that I read them the way I read biographies.

Why should a writer not have to read and study and learn their craft like anybody else in any other profession? You can be a great writer but still make mistakes that you don't recognize until you learn more about the craft via some of these books. I say read a few (look for ones recommended by other writers). Certainly can't hurt.

You're right that it can't hurt, but the difference is, reading how-to books isn't how you learn the craft. Ultimately, the way you learn to write well is to read a lot and write a lot, and that's it. Sure, read how-to books, but just because it naturally falls into your cycle of sci-fi/fantasy/horror/romance/comics/history/mythology/politics/etc. books. See what I mean? Read everything, write a lot, that's how you learn.

I have a copy of it and I found it useful when I was first starting out. I'm a organizer type, so his "plan" was a good way for me to see how to start. I had so many ideas and characters and plots and scenes in my head, I wasn't sure what to do with them all. It really helped me get to work.

I must be one of the few who love how-to-write books. I guess that makes me "not a good writer" LOL I think the market place is much too competitive for me to not want to improve my skills, no matter how much I read and write. I don't believe that if you watch enough movies, you can whip out a screenplay. (I personally have no idea how to write a screenplay so I'd probably find a book or three on how to do it.)

I liked the book, but I wouldn't use the formula. It just doesn't work for me, but I did take some useful tidbits from it that I still use today.

PeeDee said:

You're right that it can't hurt, but the difference is, reading how-to books isn't how you learn the craft. Ultimately, the way you learn to write well is to read a lot and write a lot, and that's it. Sure, read how-to books, but just because it naturally falls into your cycle of sci-fi/fantasy/horror/romance/comics/history/mythology/politics/etc. books. See what I mean? Read everything, write a lot, that's how you learn.

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Reading how-to books is certainly how I learned some aspects of the craft, and how I came to understand others. I've discovered new techniques more than once while reading how-to books, and I've learned how to actually use other techniques with more skill.

I believe all information is as useful as a person makes it, and while trying to learn how to write well simply by reading fiction and writing fiction is certainly possible, it's far from the be all and end all of the process, and is certain to leave gaps in knowledge.

One thing I learned early on in college is that proper analysis and true criticism can be very helpful, and so can having writing techniques and methods broken down and spelled out. And having such techniques and methods broken down and spelled out by someone who really knows how to do so is a heck of a lot easier and faster than searching for novels that use such techniques, and writers who use such methods, and then breaking them down and spelling them out for yourself.

There's no need to reinvent the wheel to build a cart, and no need to rediscover pi in order to learn math. There should also be no need to rediscover all the useful writing techniques and writing methods on your own.

Reading much and writing often are probably the most useful things any writer can do, but they're far from the only way of learning many things about the craft, and are often the long, slow approach.

I'd say, Read away, so long as you've got the ability to chase the demons in your head who may fasten on to every syllable of advice and never let you forget it, just for the pleasure of paralyzing you. In other words, if you're writing merrily along, don't let fear stop you. I mean the fear that whatever the self-help meister advised, you're doing the opposite, so that you become afraid to experiment or find your own voice. Advice should help you, not cow you. Take what sounds right and reject the rest, just as you would from anyone else.

Advice

Novelhistorian said:

I'd say, Read away, so long as you've got the ability to chase the demons in your head who may fasten on to every syllable of advice and never let you forget it, just for the pleasure of paralyzing you. In other words, if you're writing merrily along, don't let fear stop you. I mean the fear that whatever the self-help meister advised, you're doing the opposite, so that you become afraid to experiment or find your own voice. Advice should help you, not cow you. Take what sounds right and reject the rest, just as you would from anyone else.

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Very good way of looking at it, I think.