In a post on Killzone, PJ Parrish says you shouldn’t worry about avoiding mistakes, because your writing mishaps provide you the best opportunity to learn. “If you write in fear of doing something wrong, you are doomed,” she says. “Whether you are venturing into a new genre, experimenting with a different plot structure, or trying to write a short story for the first time, or just switching from the comfort of first person to third, you can’t be afraid to fail.”
Unfortunately, no one can decide for you if you’re pursuing an exciting new creative thread or wasting your time on a crash-and-burn project. But who cares? “Why would you want to be a poor man’s Jeff Deaver? Or another sad clone of Gillian Flynn?” Parrish says. “Write the book that only you can write.”
Even if you make a mistake, you’ve learned something. “Sometimes doing something the wrong way is the only way to find the right way,” Parrish writes. “Even if you follow every ‘rule’ to the letter, there’s no guarantee you’re going to succeed. If you concentrate on what is safe, what is trendy, what is sell-able (revelation: No one really knows what will sell) you will produce junk.”
But what if you write a novel and nobody comes? No agent, no publisher, no readers? Learn from the experience. Grow as a writer. Bear up under rejection. Find your next story. “Don’t write the book you think might sell,” Parrish says. “You have to write the book that is tearing at your insides to get out. Write the book that keeps you up at night.”
