Anne Rice's Advice On Writing

This morning I sat down to write a post on book promotion and ended up with a post about Anne Rice's advice on writing. I love doing research on the internet!

As part of my post on book promotion I wanted to link to one of Hugh Howey's informative blog posts where he gives his advice on how best to sell one's work, but then I came across his link to Anne Rice's advice on writing.

Of course I stopped what I was doing and listened to it. I mean, come on, it's Anne Rice!

I'm glad I did.

The video is only 12 minutes long and you don't have to watch it, you can let it play in the background while you do housework or surf the web.

A Summary Of Anne Rice's Advice On Writing

The first half of the video is Anne Rice saying that there's no one way to write, just write! Starting at around 6:04 she gives a couple of tips:

1. Go where the pain is

I couldn't help it, immediately that scene from The Princess Bride flashed through my mind. You know the one.

Anyway. The idea is to go where it hurts. Find a memory that hurts so much you can't breathe. Write about it. Explore it.

Anne Rice wrote Interview with the Vampire after her daughter passed away. I've often thought that the writing of Interview may have helped her deal with the pain of her loss.

2. Go where the pleasure is

What excites you? Where would you like to be? Where would you like to go?

Write that book. Write what's interesting to you. Write the story you most want to read.

What is the best advice about writing you ever received?

Here's a link to a great article by Hugh Howey: Making a Living as a Writer.

Photo credit: "Untitled" by Thomas Leuthard under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.