I'd be the first to admit that a good writer's library is invaluable. Like most writers who have been at this craft for more than 6 months, I've sunk quite a bit of money into writing books, at least $350 right after I graduated with my degree alone. And that was 4 years ago, you can imagine the writing library has grown since then. We are told to read to be better writers; read fiction to see how other authors write, read on writing to get insight to the writing process, read other nonfiction to keep in touch with our world. However, books on writing have their own special dangers, particularly for new writers.

It is far too easy to see these books as the absolute authorities on how we should write. Being in print lends the book a sense of absolute truth, and books from well known, well published authors are given even more power by the mere fact that their authors have used the advice given again and again quite successfully. We take the advice to heart, start to follow it as unerringly as we are capable of, and then find ourselves confronted with one of two problems (or both): another authors, equally well known and well published, puts out a book that contradicts the advice we're following; or we find ourselves unable to work in the way the author demands. For years, my first novel never made it to a completed rough draft because I kept hearing that the way "real" authors write is to begin with the first word and end with the last word. But I can't write a novel straight through like that. I finally found my way, but I wonder if it would have been found sooner if I had realized earlier that "Real" authors write in the way they need to write, not to some specific technique or style.

Writing is very personal. Every writer will approach it differently, from how they write to what they write. We're told to limit adverbs, but J. K. Rowling does just fine with hers. We're told less is more when it comes to description, but that hasn't kept Mercedes Lackey from publishing new work. Writing books are helpful, but they are not the absolute authorities on writing. As with any other advice we receive, we need to read widely and take what makes sense to us and make it our own. Reading on how to write is enriching to us as writers, we learn and grow from such reading, but none of it is absolute. Writing is an art, and art has very few absolutes. Every artist must find his or her own path, his or her own voice.

Writing is also very much tied to culture and time. What is seen as excellent writing in England in the 1500's certainly isn't the kind of writing that will sell today. And what readers enjoy today, they will not enjoy in a few years. Just as the popularity of certain genres come and go, so do writing styles and rules. And books about writing are just as tied to the culture and time they are written in as the short stories and novels that are published. They are static, a picture of what works at that particular time.

Some writers become so caught up in the learning, in getting all the information they can on how to write, that they forget the rest of the equation. Reading about writing is a good thing, but we only become better writers when we actually write. It's easy to get caught up in the reading, to realize there is so much more we need to learn, and to not pick up a pen. But reading about writing and not putting pen to paper is the same as reading about painting and not applying paint and brush to canvass: the reading isn't going to teach you the control you need to make the picture you want. You must practice. It's the only way to improve your own work.

Read to learn about writing, but balance it with the actual writing practice you need. There's always something new out there for us to learn, something more that can help us improve our writing. It never ends. To try to fill up on what you need to know before you get started will only keep you from doing the one thing you're trying to learn to do: write.