Writing Advice?

[rowyn]

I read a rather peculiar article by Kristine Rusch: peculiar because one of her themes seems to be that wannabe writers are frequently advised they don't need to practice.

Now, I am aware that (a) authors have often been discouraged by publishers from publishing more than two books a year and (b) new writers tend to be in love with their own work regardless of quality (I have certainly always been in love with mine, even when I was 13 and it was appallingly bad). Certainly "you should practice often" is good advice.

It is also the advice I've heard from literally every source about writing. I can't think of any time I've heard "nope, writing a lot is a bad idea. Don't do that" other than as a rumored thing that gets said to published authors because their publisher doesn't want to 'saturate the market'. I can believe Stephen King hears it. I am hard-pressed to imagine Jane Doe, starry-eyed writing student, is hearing it from her teachers. That "it takes a million words or more to find your voice" line that Rusch's essay says writers don't get told? I have heard that many, many times.

In fact, while I've never heard 'writing lots is bad', I have often heard the opposite: 'you can never be successful if you can't finish at least a book a year, at a minimum: you are obviously not good enough/obsessed enough and never will be'.

So I am curious! Is this a thing that happens to other people and I've just missed it? Has anyone else been advised that it's a bad idea to write a lot if you want to be an author?

Comments

[scribblemyname]

She's specifically referring to the difference between being told to write more books rather than polish this one to perfection before you write another book. And honestly, I do see that a lot in the trad writer world: revise, revise, revise with these years-long time periods devoted to one story instead of "good enough is good enough" and move along and write another story. I do see a lot of disdain once you get too prolific, though none for medium/average production. So my experience mirrors yours in reference to small numbers, write your target wordcount daily is common advice, but as regards larger numbers and what to do with those numbers and whether they refer to finished and submittable/publishable work, I've definitely seen exactly what Rusch describes.