Where is the Magic Writing Formula?

I love looking at all the books on writing and publishing. After the YA section, it's probably my favorite part of the bookstore. I mean, there's so much promise there. Write your novel this year! Write your novel in a month! No plot? NO PROBLEM. How to write science fiction. How to write short stories. How to write a sentence, a scene, a character. Plot-building, world-building, inspiration. I go into this part of the bookstore and I just feel like I need everything. I need to know how to create scenes and outline a plot and do writing exercises, right?

Right. Totally. Definitely.

So I start going through these books and flipping to random pages the way I do when I'm shopping for books and most of what I read is stuff I've heard before. Where is all the new information? Where is the magic formula for the perfect plot/character/scene/novel? Is it not here in this bookstore? OMG.


It always takes a while before I remember that reading another book on writing won't actually write my novel for me. It won't make it easier. It won't get me an agent or editor. It might give me more information, but without actually writing even that information won't be worth anything.

Thinking about writing won't finish the book.
Reading about writing won't finish the book.
Only sitting down and writing will finish the book. Or edit the book, rewrite it, polish it. Nothing accomplishes this except for actually working on it.

Of course, having said all of that... I actually did end up buying another writing book this time. I'm about a third of the way through The Art of War for Writers and so far I really like it.