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 5: The Californication Tip

You should never write about a writer (or other artist) who can’t write (or art). I’ve only really seen this done well a few times — Californication being the best example. But for every Californication, there are a hundred versions of The Dog Problem (so boring and self-indulgent that I turned it off after 15 minutes) and a hundred books or short-stories about creatively-blocked writers who teach at small-town MFA programs. They say to write what you know, but everyone — even non-creative people — knows about writer’s block.

Never make your main character a writer, editor, publisher, or other kind of artist, unless that artist is not dealing with writer’s block. Write a book about a musician who’s having trouble in his love life, or a painter who has to move home and take care of her ailing mother, or, yes, an author going through a messy divorce. But the story shouldn’t be about being blocked creatively. That’s boring, and it’s almost never done well. Californication was great, but we aren’t all Tom Kapinos.