Avoiding over-reliance on writing formulas and techniques

By Dennis Mellersh

For the beginner writer interested in developing a book, there can be a temptation to search for sure-fire book-writing formulas, theories, or techniques that will lead to success. These might be called short-cuts.

It is only natural to assume that, with so much advice available on how to write a book, that there are tried and true methods that will help ensure success. And, in fact, there is a lot of good instructive material available on the basics of how to structure your approach to writing your book.

But when it comes to the actual writing, it is important to speak in your own voice and to guard against your writing becoming imitative of your favorite authors, for example.

Similarly, imitating the way a favorite author develops exposition or dialogue could result in your work appearing derivative and lacking in originality.

The novelist William Faulkner discussed over-dependence on technique and the need to develop your own voice in an interview reproduced in Writers at Work, published by the Paris Review:

“Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get the writing done, no short cut. The young writer would be a fool to follow a theory. Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error. The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. He has supreme vanity. No matter how much he admires the old writer he wants to beat him.”