This panel featured Peter V. Brett (The Demon Cycle the latest installment is The Desert Prince), Terry Brooks (Shannara series), Wesley Chu (The Art of Prophecy), Delilah S. Dawson (The Violence), Naomi Novik (Scholomance series) and Chuck Wendig (Wanderers, Wayward) as they talk about the best writing advice they ever got and what advice they would give to an aspiring writer. Moderated by Tricia Narwani (Del Rey editor-in-chief).
I’m a big fan of most of the writers on this panel and head read many of the books they’ve published. Well, Wesley Chu is the only writer I haven’t read, but I snagged a copy of The Art of Prophecy which was being given away at the Del Rey booth later in the afternoon of the signing day. Naomi Novik’s Uprooted is a modern masterpiece and her Temeraire series that places dragons in our own Napoleonic era.
Chuck Wendig is high on my list of favorite writers, Delilah is a master of writing in several worlds, Peter Brett’s Demon Cycle is a fantastic, global bestseller and one could say that Terry Brooks is the Godfather or Uncle of modern Epic fantasy. It was interesting to hear the various answers from these participants, and it was equally interesting to hear some parallels from the different writers.
What are Some Comfort Reads?
Chuck Wendig: Sara Gran’s Come Closer which can work as sort of a companion to Paul Tremblay’s A Head Full of Ghosts
Naomi Novik: The Aubrey-Matrin Series by Patrick O’Brian
Best Advice They Ever Got
Peter V. Brett: His agent said of The Warded Man (first book in The Demon Cycle) “this isn’t good, but it could be.” The book didn’t deliver the promise of the premise, but through several iterations, Peter produced the global bestseller, The Painted Man.
Wesley Chu: Fight through it
Terry Brooks: Lester Del Rey, who was Terry’s first editor and lent his name to the imprint, said, “stop trying to reinvent the wheel.”
Naomi Novik: When your struggling in the plot, set something on fire.
Chuck Wendig: A failed novelist, so entered a screenwriting contest, won. Was told to outline, but Chuck doesn’t outline and asks horses in meadows what to do, he listens to clouds. Chuck eventually learned that Outlining helps. In reality, if the process isn’t working, you have to change it.
The Worst Advice They’ve Received
Chuck Wendig: A rejection letter told him to quit. Cruel writing advice isn’t good
Naomi Novik: When she’s told something is working, she’s told how to fix it. Being told how to fix it isn’t good advice, but knowing something isn’t working is good advice.
Terry Brooks: Lester Del Rey said, “Don’t quit the day job” cost him 5 years of good writing.
Wesley Chu: “Quit the day job.”
Delilah S. Dawson: “You should not write the book I (as the agent) can’t sell, the monster book. Don’t write the book that’s in your heart.”
Peter V. Brett: “You should go back and self-publish or sell those first / trunked books”
Writing Rules That Are Fun to Break
Peter V. Brett: As I’m getting older, all those rules are bullshit. As long as the reader gets it, that’s what is most important.
Delilah S. Dawson: Copyeditors change the dialect too much. Thought editors had to essentially be obeyed, but there’s a compromise possible. Delilah had to continually “stet” the dialogue she used because it was authentic Southern, she knew how people talked.
Wesley Chu: He used to think characters had to be smart, but real people make dumb decisions. What you should do is justify, in character, that dumb decision.
Terry Brooks: Break every rule
Naomi Novik: New writers, rules make you look at the writing in a technical way.
Chuck Wendig: Rules are bullshit, but bullshit still fertilizer. Adverbs won’t kill you, and can provide evocative imagery.
Naomi Novik: Almost all writing advice boils down to don’t write badly.
Wesley Chu: Language and writing evolves, as do the “rules.”
Chuck Wendig: Writing is more cooking than baking, art v science. Write a lot and you learn what your voice is, a cool kind of alchemy. Chaos reigns.
Delilah S. Dawson: It is like cooking learn the rules to break them.
What Did You Learn from Writers You’ve Read
Chuck Wendig: Robin Hobb does great character work but tortures them. [RB note: Yes, I agree completely, Hobb is a master]
Naomi Novik: The Aubrey-Matrin Series for their technical accuracy and great characters who are true to their time.
Terry Brooks: Importance of reading all the time. Read outside the field in which you write, you can learn why those writers are successful.
Wesley Chu: Agrees with Terry. Whenever he’s at the the airport, Wesley picks random book. On the other hand, The Princess Bride really blew his mind, he always returns to it.
Delilah S. Dawson: Dead after Dark, Sookie Stackhouse #1, which helped Delilah realize, “We’re allowed to do Southern Vampires? Historic bodice rippers?” If you can do it well enough, you can do it.
Peter V. Brett: C.S. Friedman, Coldfire Trilogy and Magister world building masterclass, great empathy to the characters. [RB Note: YES! The Coldfire Trilogy is a masterpiece]
The panel was great, the interaction between the writers was engaging and Terry Brooks has a wry and wily sense of humor. I would even dare to say what these wonderful writers had to say about writing and how they write and became published was quite inspirational!
Upon the conclusion of the panel, the writers made their way to the autographing area to sign some books. Quite a few people had stacks of Terry Brooks’s Shannara series, others had the full set of Naomi Novik’s Scholomance series to be signed, while others had multiple volumes from Peter Brett’s Demon Cycle saga. For my signings, I had Peter Brett’s The Desert Prince, Chuck Wendig’s Blackbirds (the first in his fantastic Horror-Noir-Crime series, Miriam Black and he signs every book in that series with a prediction of how you’ll die), and Delilah Dawson’s Violence, which will go down as a top 5 or top 10 2022 book for me.
Great post, Rob. Terry is a wonderful interviewee… and Naomi’s choice of comfort reading is interesting, as I can see elements of Patrick O’Brian in her Temeraire books.