Picking What Works for You

Graphic by Peg Ihinger

Over the years, I’ve noticed that at a lot of conventions, there’s a writing-advice panel with a title like “Picking Writing Tips and Tricks that Work for You.” They almost always end up going in one of two directions—either  they turn into a list of the tips and tricks that the panelists find useful, or they turn into a bunch of anecdotes about the panelists’ difficulties during the early years of their careers.

Writing tips and tricks panels can be great—I nearly always get a new idea or two to try from going to one. (Emphasis on “try.” Very few of them stick.) But that begs the question: how do you pick the ones that are worth keeping?

Well, trial and error, mostly. But the kind of trial and error is less like a scientific experiment and more like what you do when you’re shopping for clothes and trying them on to see what fits properly and what you like. The clothes you decide not to buy work for somebody else, appeal to somebody else, not you.

It’s primarily a matter of attitude. A lot of people head into panels (or internet forums) looking for THE solution, something guaranteed to work. But when you’re shopping for clothes, you start off assuming that a lot of things won’t work—that you’ll have to try a bunch of things before you find the right one.

Furthermore, even if you know you want a little black dress that goes with everything, you also know that you’ll still have to try things on because the style and cut and size differ—there is no “one size fits all.” There are styles that simply don’t work on my build and height, no matter how gorgeous they appear on the mannikin.

Writing tips and tricks (such as changing the font before you do the final edit) differ from writing basics, like dialog, action, viewpoint, etc. Tips and tricks are a huge warehouse of possibilities, but they’re not magic just because someone on the internet says they are. So shop. Look for things you think you can use, that sound like they’ll work with your style and process. Do not waste time and effort trying to force a tailored suit to work for you, when you’re a sweater-and-jeans person (or vice versa).

In addition to your personal style and process, what you are trying to accomplish has a lot to do with which tips and tricks make sense to try. Extending the shopping metaphor, you might be a black-tie formal sort of person, but if you’re shopping for clothes to muck out the stables in, you wouldn’t buy a tux or an evening gown. Similarly, if you’re having a real problem with dialog, collecting tips for figuring out where the story starts is probably a way of avoiding the issue. On the other hand, if you’re just feeling kind of stale and the how-to-start tips sound like a bit of crazy fun, go for them. You don’t have to keep using them if they turn out not to work as well as you hoped.

And that’s the next thing to consider: are you looking for things you’ll keep doing for a long time, or for things you really only need to get through this one story? The shopping equivalent is the difference between needing something to wear to a big one-time event like a wedding, or wanting something that you’ll wear several times a month for the next five years. You may be happy spending a lot on the outfit for the wedding, or putting a lot of effort into learning/using a trick that really only applies to this one story. Or, you may prefer to put in effort only for something you’re pretty sure is going to last a while.

Listen to yourself. If you look at a tip and think “Duh! Why didn’t I think of that years ago? I must try it immediately,” then there’s a good chance it will work for you. If you think, “That’s interesting; I wonder if it’ll help” or “Why would anyone ever do that?” then it may or may not help you. If you think “Oh, god, that sounds like more work than what I’m already doing” or “That one’s for pantsers, and I’m a plodder,” then you may prefer to move on without testing, or at least, drop it to the bottom of your to-try list.

Keep in mind the things you already know about what does and doesn’t work for you. If you know that you’re a hardcore pantser, there’s probably not much point in spending a lot of time testing tips that involve elaborate pre-writing plot development. Even if you decide to try on something completely different in the fitting room once in a while, just for fun, you still don’t buy it if it doesn’t fit and looks dreadful on you. And if you do get something home and find out it doesn’t work with the rest of your wardrobe, you return it or give it away and get something else.

Moving on isn’t a failure; it’s a recognition that the last thing wasn’t helpful for you. If it almost worked, you can look for a different sweater…er, tip…that is similar except for the annoying part that makes it not-quite-work.

Finally, if the “tip” means you’re going to have to completely up-end your current writing process…think about it. Tips, tricks, and writing systems aren’t miracle cures. On the other hand, maybe up-ending your entire process is what you need—sometimes, throwing out everything in the closet and starting over is not merely a cathartic new beginning, it’s a better beginning (or middle, or ending).

Even when the tips-and-tricks don’t work, thinking about why they did or didn’t work can tell you useful things about your process and how to make a better guess next time.