In a post on Lit Hub, Carter Bays says enjoying what you do with your writing is as important as how you get it done.
“Don’t write anything just because you think you’re supposed to,” he says. “Write the parts you want to write, and skip everything else. Just tell the story. And at the end of it, when you read it back over, you’re going to see all the little Hows you stressed out over, and all the places where you thought you were doing it wrong. And guess what? Turns out, that wasn’t you doing it wrong at all. That was just your style.”
You’re allowed to have a style, Bays says. Lots of dialogue and little description? It worked for Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments. Lots of description, heavy on the details? It worked for Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians.
How is still important, though. “You have to learn the rules before you can break them, and nothing replaces years of study and trial and error,” Bays says. “But if you’re anything like me, no amount of study will ever be enough, and the How will scare you off so badly that you’ll pack up a great What and go home. And that’s the worst thing you can do.”
