Since it’s November, and therefore NaNoWriMo, I wanted to give you a few “Writers, don’t do this” tips from my own experience.

Number 2: The George RR Martin Tip

You know who ASOIAF readers love, right? Tyrion, Jon Snow, and Arya. You know who we don’t? Asha, Sansa (in the beginning), and even Sam got little stale. Martin has a penchant for fully fleshing out and exploring every character’s meanderings through Westeros and Essos, and it makes the books immense and difficult to read, no matter how interesting the story could be. After a while, I just get sick of reading the books, and that impacts my enjoyment of the characters and storylines that I do like.

I’m reminded of something Lin-Manuel Miranda was told during the process of writing Hamilton, though I can’t remember who told it to him. Maybe Sondheim? Anyway, it’s “only write the parts that are a musical.” In other words, you only need to write the parts of your story that are germane to the plot and are going to advance it in a generally-forward direction. If you want to write sidebars, great; cut them out afterward. I can think of three of my in-progress novels that have subplots and detours that need to go, not because they’re badly written or uninteresting, but because they take us away from the direction I want the story to go in.