From Robert A. Heinlein, a golden age science fiction writer, his letter to his agent, May 16, 1947:
...As for formal coaching from Uzzell [a well-known "story doctor" and coach of the time] or anyone, I'm afraid of coaching, of writers' classes, of writers' magazines, of books on how to write. They give me centipede trouble--you know the yarn about the centipede who was asked how he managed all his feet? He tried to answer, stopped to think about it, and was never able to walk another step. Articles and books on how to write have that effect on me. The author seems so persuasive, so sure that he knows what he is talking about, that I start having doubts about my own technique. It usually turns out that the author is urging the reader to do something quite unsuited to me--fine for him probably, but not my pidgin. If I try to imitate him, follow his directions, I usually fail to accomplish his methods and lose my own in the process...
I do get a great deal of help from studying other writers' stories, particularly in the respects in which I see that they have accomplished an effect that I do not as yet know how to accomplish. I find such study of what they have done more use to me that their discussions of how they do it.
...As for formal coaching from Uzzell [a well-known "story doctor" and coach of the time] or anyone, I'm afraid of coaching, of writers' classes, of writers' magazines, of books on how to write. They give me centipede trouble--you know the yarn about the centipede who was asked how he managed all his feet? He tried to answer, stopped to think about it, and was never able to walk another step. Articles and books on how to write have that effect on me. The author seems so persuasive, so sure that he knows what he is talking about, that I start having doubts about my own technique. It usually turns out that the author is urging the reader to do something quite unsuited to me--fine for him probably, but not my pidgin. If I try to imitate him, follow his directions, I usually fail to accomplish his methods and lose my own in the process...
I do get a great deal of help from studying other writers' stories, particularly in the respects in which I see that they have accomplished an effect that I do not as yet know how to accomplish. I find such study of what they have done more use to me that their discussions of how they do it.
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