The Inertia of Bad Ideas

Here’s some good writing advice and tough love from Hugh Howey where he discusses being in a writing room for a TV show and how it applies to his work in books:

I figured out a long time ago that it’s often better to delete entire chapters and start with a blank page than it is to fix a story that’s gone awry. It’s some of the best craft-level writing advice one can receive: Figure out where you were last excited about your story, go back to that point, and try something radically new going forward. Repeat until you remain excited all the way through to the end.

Howey is also opening submissions for feedback right now and is making a series of videos where he talks about writing and it all seems interesting so far. In fact, I cannot tell you how much I love this form of working in public as it’s just so exciting to me; that potent mix of vulnerability and curiosity! Swoon.