"Follow these instructions; success is waiting for you..."

Or even better, ignore me completely.

Cary Grant in North by Northwest

Cary Grant was merely following instructions: if he took a bus to this intersection on Route 41 in the middle of nowhere someone would meet him and all would be well, everything - including Mr. Kaplan - explained. Well, he was confused, desperate; he didn’t really understand what was going on; he wanted someone to clarify things, perhaps tell him what to do next.

Which didn’t happen of course; a crop-duster tried to wipe him out…

I suspect writers are no different. At times we too are confused, a little lost, searching for a way through the fog: “what do I write next?”, “how can I resolve this plot issue?”, “what is the right number of words / points of view / chapters / characters / lines etcetera?”, “how do I achieve A or B or C?”

And there are lots of people prepared to tell us. As they say, “Advice is cheap”. On Substack and elsewhere you can submerge yourself in courses, programmes, workshops, prompts. It is likely that there will be merit in the vast majority of these - but in my view you should always approach them with a fair pinch of salt. If the extension of the above quote is true - “Advice is cheap, context is priceless” (Hiten Shah) - then recognise that the people dishing out advice (and possibly asking you to pay for it, so not so cheap) are doing so from a different place to the one you occupy, and are driven by other motivations… How can they not be?

It’s something of a minefield.

“Some people know a lot more than they're willing to tell. Unfortunately, the reverse is also true.”

It depends what you’re looking for, of course. Many people will be searching for that magic key which will unlock their creativity and talent: if only you could find a way to do X or Y or Z then everything would fall into place. Route 41, minus the crop-duster.

For some people that unlocking may happen, and a new regime / series of prompts etcetera might help - but in general I’m sceptical, and for two reasons.

The first of these is the danger that outside influences - however well-intentioned - may actually stop you from working on what you should be writing. You may find yourself wrapped up in flash fiction or poetry exercises, or tied to some rigid writing regime; your creativity - not in the sense of ‘craft’ but in terms of attachment, emotion, belief, purpose - become diluted or subsumed by the mechanistic. If the sense of achievement starts to come from completing this week’s exercise then ask yourself, what’s that really worth?

The second reason is that most writers, if they are having difficulties or are facing challenges, actually already know the solution. As a creative writing mentor I very often find that writers understand their issue and how to resolve it. All they need to do is to recognise it, or have it played back to them. Writers are intelligent creatures; they can take it from there.

“No-one wants advice, only corroboration” - John Steinbeck

And remember, advice is actually instinctively difficult to take. There’s that old adage: “Advice: more fun to give than receive.”

How true.

So my advice - and spot the irony here!! - is to tread carefully. There are no silver bullets, and so you should approach prophets bearing them as gifts with a great deal of caution.

Understand the ‘why’, ‘who’, ‘type’, and ‘what’ of your writing (see my other posts on these four threads), and then believe in yourself and your work; the chances are you know what you need to do, so it might just be a matter of self-discipline and execution.

And keep writing. Write what you want to write, not what others tell you should be writing.

There is no magic SatNav for creativity.

You can’t simply enter ‘AB12 3CD’ somewhere (or Route 41 come to that!) and find yourself guided to the perfect destination. It doesn’t work that way. If it did, you’d find everyone else there!

So keep plugging away.

And maybe ignore everything I’ve just said…

---