I think Stephen King recommends it, though he's not about Absolute Rules of Writing, IIRC. But I'm pretty sure that's his advice in On Writing, and I've had it quoted at me a few times.

This is why I have never yet looked inside a book about "how to write", by anyone, any time, anywhere.

Tell me something's a rule and I immediately break it.

I've stopped reading writing books, mostly. Although besides "Bird by Bird" I also like this one by an editor called "Forest for The Trees". Anyone else here read it? It has a lot of stuff in it about what editing is like and what editors think when they reject stories...war story stuff In my case, taking multiple weeks before looking at mine has helped me look at it and read it again, as opposed to scanning the pages somewhat blankly and thinking of everything as being foregone. I was thinking I'd be finished by now, but at least Deb will not have to wear down her machete when she gets the newest version.

In general, I'm fine with advice given in the tone of, "Here's what works for me; take it or leave it." (Which King's is, IMO.) I take a lot of it, because I'm still a newbie at all this. But once you tell me this is the one and only way to do something, I immediately become determined to prove that it's not. I wonder if that's the ex-fundamentalist in me coming out--the more gushing, glowy, and religious in fervor a method's proponents are, the faster I run in the opposite direction.

Me, I'm just perverse. Tell me the sky is irrevocably blue and you'll get a mulish eyebrow raised, even if I agree with you.

I just tend to snarl at absolutes. But also, I had a musician father with purely musician child - me - that he refused to allow to take music lessons because he said formal musical education had rotted out more creative spirits than opium ever would. His feeling was that I ought to learn if I had something to say before I risked clogging the chakras with the grammar behind the language.

So for me, it becomes a "sit down and do it, or walk away and do something else" deal. All in the upbringing.

Tell me the sky is irrevocably blue and you'll get a mulish eyebrow raised, even if I agree with you.

Heh. This reminds me of the summer before I left for college, when my mother and I were fighting all the time, more than we have before or since. She said, "If I said the sky was blue, you'd argue with me."

I looked out the window. It was a sunny day, but in the ultra-humid, ultra-hazy way of an Alabama July. I said, "Actually, it looks white to me."

Mom was not amused, but Dad was.

"If I said the sky was blue, you'd argue with me."

Yet another reason why I could never be a deist. I appreciate the value of a good metaphor - the sky is blue - but tell me it's the literal One True Way, and prepare for a week's worth of snarling argument over it.

Deb, just out of curiosity, how many beta readers do you use? I have some volunteers, and I'm trying to decide if I should take all comers, or if that's overkill and I should just go with 3-5, plus any of my CPs who feel up for reading the whole thing at one go.

I think I need a good poking.

I ought to be working on Cruel Sister; I've got maybe 17,000 words to go and I'm ahead of deadline schedule and I should be working on it.

But right now, for various reasons, I want to curl up and reread both the Kinkaid Chronicles instead. Notice, I'm bneing that good, at least: I swore I wouldn't begin London Calling until Cruel Sister is done.

But I'm ahead of schedule and for various emotionally based and therefore misty-eyes-making reasons, I want to go visit my what-if world for a few hours.

That's not too evil, is it? And anyway, I'm waiting for WIP feedback on Cruel Sister.

Susan, honestly, it depends on what you're looking for from the input, and how willing/able you feel to deal with what could be a rush of what seems like conflicting sensory load.

I've got what, for me, is a small, manageable number for Cruel Sister. Right now, thirteen WIP readers, of whom about seven give me constant feedback. But for the Kinkaid Chronicles - hooooeeee, that was superb. Rock and Roll Never Forgets had 42 WIP readers and I got feedback from every last one of them, and some vital practical medical input, as well. While My Guitar Gently Weeps had 36 WIP readers, and about thirty of them gave me steady input and commentary. And believe it or not, for various reasons, those were locked down hard and tight.

edit: meant to add that, for the Kinkaid Chronicles, what I needed was very different from what I need for the Haunted Ballads. For Kinkaid, I have a first person narrator whose voice is the remembered voice of someone I knew better than damned near anyone, so what I wanted there was an interesting cross-section of input: was his voice clear, and true? That was the single most important thing to me. What about Bree, his younger lover - was she clear? What about the mystery aspect (secondary) and the backstage feel of the rock and roll upper echelon world (which I know intimately, but that doesn't mean I was writing it cflearly for those who don't know it.)

Susan, honestly, it depends on what you're looking for from the input, and how willing/able you feel to deal with what could be a rush of what seems like conflicting sensory load.

t nods

My instinct is that more is better...up to a point. I'm glad I entered so many contests this year, despite all the angst involved, because with a full dozen anonymous opinions, I actually have a sense of how a fair sample of readers receive my work. I also like being in two critique groups. A lot of the characterization problems with Anna are things one of my Monday partners hinted at but didn't know how to articulate, so I kind of waved them off. If I didn't have my online group too, I wouldn't know I had a problem that needs fixing. I think there is an overload point, though--36 would be too many for me.