![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/instinct.jpg\" "\\"instinct\\"")
<\/a>Is it dangerous to ignore our writing instincts?<\/p><\/div>\n
But earlier this month, my short story A Dragon\u2019s Back<\/em><\/a> was published in Parenting Express<\/em>. A very personal story, it was difficult to write, even more difficult to put \u2018out there\u2019. Thankfully, it immediately received much praise and support for \u2013 fans said \u2013 the honesty and bravery it recounts. More pertinent to this discussion, however, the story also speaks about the importance of trusting your gut and the dangers of ignoring your instincts. In one particular aspect of my personal life, I listened for far too long to what I was prescribed.<\/p>\n So what of my writing life \u2013 what of prescribing writing advice to others and being prescribed it? Is that dangerous also and, if so, what dangers lurk within the practice?<\/p>\n In my writers\u2019 group, the Northern Beaches Writers’ Group<\/a>, I have writer-members who study the art of writing at University, professional writers with years of publishing experience, and those who write without any prior training or study \u2013 they write from their gut. When I read through their various manuscripts, can I tell which manuscripts belong to which writer? No way! So who is to say that it is better to stick with any prescribed rules of writing, rather than to write instinctively?<\/p>\n Last year, I attended a series of talks at Shearer\u2019s Bookshop<\/a> in Leichhardt, Sydney, where various amazing Australian authors discussed genre labelling \u2013 genre labelling itself being an exercise in fitting different types of writing within prescribed sets of rules (read about the talks here<\/a> and here<\/a>). Now, while most writers know which genre they write in, some aren\u2019t so certain. Given the multitude of fiction sub-genres around today (there’s a useful list on “The Other Side of the Story”<\/a>), who can blame them?<\/p>\n So I asked literary agent Sophie Hamley<\/a> during one of these genre talks last year: how should writers who are unsure of their genre present their work to publishers? She said that writers should focus on writing the story they want to tell, and leave the genre-labelling to agents and publishers. Freelance editors such as Bothersome Words<\/a> agree:<\/p>\n I do read a lot of unpublished manuscripts where I\u2019ve been told up-front the author has deliberately written to genre because they read somewhere that their original cross-genre idea mightn\u2019t sell. They rework the story to fit perceived requirements and usually the result is a story that feels a bit hollow; writing that feels a little off.<\/em><\/p>\n So editors can tell if a writer has written to prescribed genre rules because it feels forced, and agents and publishers don\u2019t necessarily want something that sticks to prescribed rules \u2013 they just want a good story.<\/p>\n And yet the book market continues to be flooded with self-help writing books, and authors (including me) continue to recommend those books, as well as their own tips (by the way, mine are totally awesome, of course!). So which is it? Trust our instincts and be unique, or stick to the rules? Am I a hypocrite for encouraging people to trust their instincts and at the same time recommend writers abide by my recommended techniques?<\/p>\n