Photo by Ana Luísa Pinto — Photo by Ana Luísa Pinto

How timely, to talk about this. It seems the topic is in the air, with the latest article on Haruki Murakami and how he doesn't give a shit, and the latest blog post by Chuck Wendig on how you'll never get anywhere if you compare yourself to others, and my own thoughts today and yesterday and the day before, after reading a book a day, literally, first THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS by John Boyne, then THE GIRL ON THE FRIDGE by Etgar Keret, and comparing writing styles and scratching my head. And, well, thinking. And what I'm thinking about is this. How none of the writing rules you learn help you write better. Yes, it's beneficial to know the basics of grammar and plotting and expositions and whatever other fancy names literary scholars employ describing all the smart parts of the writing process. Smart as in, things you usually have to look up to know what they mean. I'm the one guilty of this. I still don't know all the proper terms and labels and components. I only recently have learned the difference between a metaphor and a simile and I'm about to start writing my 3rd novel. Pathetic, right? I know. And yet. And yet I didn't feel the needed to know them all, and here is the thing I want to share with you.

Writing rules are there to be broken.

Dylann Rhea asked: "I'm just curious about how you get readers interested in your book? I have followers on twitter (which are mostly companies and other indie writers) but no one seems to be interested in reading my story. I know I'm really new to the writing world and I'm just grasping how to advertise and all that jazz but I still can't figure out how to get readers interested."

I have a very simple answer for you.

DON'T.

It's harsh, but it's true. If you work hard at "getting readers interested in your book", as in, you will shove it in their faces, you will foist it in their hands, you will shout at them on every corner how they absolutely must read your timeless masterpiece and how if they don't, you will follow them all the way home and nag them there until they take your book just to get rid of you and later barf on it or give it to their dogs or burn it or throw it in a trash bin where raccoons will pee on it in the night, oblivious to your literary genius shining forth from the pages within. That's not how you get people interested in reading your work. Want to know why?

On writing rules and not giving a shit

How to get readers interested in your book