Fiction author Robin Brande talks about writing, reading, and other vital matters

Last night I attended a lecture on science and theology (because I know how to party), and one of the presenters handed out this great list of quotations from famous scientists.

The one that struck me most was by Blaise Pascal, the French physicist:

We are more easily persuaded, in general, by the reasons we ourselves discover than by those which are given to us by others.

I think that’s right, don’t you? Some of my best lessons have come from learning by doing–otherwise known as learning by screwing up. I’d prefer I always got things right, but there’s no doubt my monumental flubs have had a great deterrent–I mean, educational–value.

On the other hand, haven’t we all been able to learn at least some chunk of information from reading about what others have done?

Take, for instance, the publishing business. I read a lot of writers’ and agents’ blogs, and I feel like I’ve gotten a pretty good education that way. Joe Konrath puts out some incredibly useful–although at times painfully radical–ideas about self-promotion. He talks in hard numbers, which I think is awfully generous of him and helpful to us.

New York Times bestseller Tess Gerritsen speaks freely about what it’s like to still be sweating her book sales this far down the road. She also fills us in on what it’s like to have readers send you hate mail. Don’t get me wrong–there are plenty of happy posts–but I always appreciate someone’s willingness to show off her clay feet.

Meg Cabot’s blog covers everything from her romantic fantasies about Tarzan and Warren Buffet, to what it’s like to be on a book tour (yesterday was day 15 out of 25), to how it is she came to write funny books in the first place. As I’ve mentioned before, I became a fan of Meg’s blog before I ever even looked at one of her books. Her posts always crack me up.

For information from the agent angle, I read Miss Snark (who doesn’t) and Agent Kristin (ditto). It’s always useful to hear from their end what we writers do that drives them up a tree. Same with Bookseller Chick and A Fuse #8 Production, giving it to us from the bookseller and librarian perspective. I especially liked Bookseller Chick’s post earlier this year about authors behaving badly in her store. Let us all be warned.

Those aren’t the only blogs I spend too much time every day reading, but it’s a start. You can see some of the rest of them on the links on this page.

My point is, I hear what Blaise Pascal is saying, but I don’t think learning by doing is the only–or in some cases, even the best–way to figure things out. Yes, I probably needed to know for myself that fire hurts and vanilla extract doesn’t taste at all as good as it smells, but there are plenty of life lessons out there that I’m willing to get from book-learning. You have to be at least somewhat skeptical and not take everything everyone else says as gospel, but aren’t we allowed the short cut of other people sharing their wisdom? We’re all in this human thing together, right? Why not tell each other what we figured out today?

For example, thanks to Joe Konrath, I now know I would never want to spend three months on a 500-bookstore tour like he did this summer. It seems to have worked out well for him, but I can see I would be beyond miserable if I had to stay away from home that long. Joe did the tour so I don’t have to.

So what do you think? Where have your better lessons come from–by doing it yourself, or by hearing the wisdom of others?

Technorati Tags: Writing, Publishing, Science, Blaise Pascal, Joe Konrath, Tess Gerritsen, Meg Cabot, Miss Snark, Pub Rants, Agent Kristin, Kristin Nelson

Posted on Thursday, September 21st, 2006 at 7:31 am under Life, Science, Writing . Subscribe to responses: RSS 2.0 Comment Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.