[Workshop]: Why "Write, Write, Write More!" Isn't Good Enough.

A lot of novice writers have heard this mantra (or some similar variation thereof) repeated like gospel, and I have a gripe to pick:

Step 1: Write!
Step 2: Shut up and write more!
Step 3: Don't stop writing!
Step 4: You did it!!!!! 

STOP! This is without a doubt the quickest way to fail as a novelist and assure that your manuscript is a train wreck. You're wasting your time. Anyone spouting this rhetoric should immediately be discredited as a source of advice. Writing is so much more than just non-stop writing. Exclusively "learning as you go" is a farce. "Just figuring it out" will end you in the shit heap. Just like Rocky's rival couldn't win a bar fight by beating the shit out of everyone he met, you're not going to wrangle a novel together by just pouring time in.

So what else is there, Glitch?

Let's make a short list of the things you're not going to learn just from mindlessly spewing out words:

• Grammar.
• Plotting + Outlining.
• Characterization.
• Cliches/Tropes.

So if I'm not going to learn by just mindlessly guessing and bloating my word count, what should I be doing?

Besides reading blogs like this (and I hope it's not the only one you read) you should be drilling yourself like training for a marathon. You should be doing research. You should be making active attempts to improve. You should be seeking feedback. You should be growing as a writer by actively educating yourself.

• Practice does not always = learning if you do so mindlessly.

Just like sports or preforming superstars don't make it without a coach, writers don't make it without some type of external push or source of information. That can come in the form of classes, coaching, or just reading blogs like this. Generally speaking, just reading novels and writing your own stuff isn't going to cut it.

That's not to say you should stop writing and exclusively switch to militarized adherence to structured drill activities akin to the writing-gestapo boot camp, but you should actively be seeking out ways to improve (some that may never have occurred to you--like learning to "Snowflake Outline").

If you find yourself standing over the abyss of questions that inevitably arise as you grow as a writer, it is important to take a step back. You will need to plan a bridge, build it, and get over it. Don't let some dill-weed shove you into the abyss saying some pseudo-motivational bullshit like "just keep writing! You'll figure it out!" because you won't. You'll fall. You will die. You literally die when you fall into an abyss. Please don't die.

So how can I build a bridge?

PART II: THE TOOL BELT

As a special note if you were linked here from /r/writing -- First, please stop dishing out shitty advice. Second, get a better sub. /r/writing is dead.