I try to avoiding writing about writing because it feels kind of self-referential. At the same time, I enjoy when other writers write about writing.
I tried to think about why this is and came up with this: It isn’t often that you get to hear a professional explain what they do so well in the exact medium that they are professional at.
A football star may be really amazing on the field, but he is not a professional at articulating what he’s doing out there. The press conference after the game he might say “we played well.” Or “our offense was really tight today.” But that doesn’t explain how we could improve our ability too.
A footballer can’t play football about how he footballs.
A singer can sing about singing, but they are restrained by their medium. At least now a days, a 3 minute song is pretty standard while a 15 minute narrative song (such as alro Guthrie or Bob Dylan) is less appreciated. Even a long poem about writing poems will be less explanatory and instructional than prose would be.
A book about writing books, an essay about writing essays, or maybe a lecture about lecturing: these should be the people who do it best doing it the best in order that you can do it better!