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In fairness it has a lot of market articles which are interesting if you know nothing about the industry.
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Yes. It's designed for writers who want to write a story instead of the plethora of articles about "how to get published" or "how to format a manuscript". The focus is on the craft of storytelling which is something academia has neglected since the 1960s in favor of the intrinsics of storytelling such as author intent, psychology, or the author's gender identity -- much of which will not help anyone write a story especially when they're not consciously familiar with what is a story.
Many writers since the 1960s, such as Stephen King, did not have the luxury of explicitly learning how to write a story as the art of storytelling was shoved out of schools. Instead, he learned unconsciously how to write by reading other stories and discovered the science of the quest on his own. In his book, "On Writing", the advice he tells his readers to learn how to write is to read. Which is fine advice. But like a painter or a musician, learning about your craft and studying for years old works, often under a master, to maximize your talent. Writing stories used to be treated like this and I don't think it's a coincidence that the golden age of American stage, page, and film ended in the 1960s.
Anyone who has a desire to write has a bit of talent. Some writers are gifted with an abundance of talent. But many writers can be taught to maximize their talent by studying storycraft either academically or learning how to absorb it through reading and watching other stories. Unfortunately colleges do not teach storytelling anymore so writers can only study story independently. The exception to this is for those who attend film school where story is still front and center.
The reality is that all stories are the same. Every story contains an archplot that is a quest in three acts: a beginning, middle and end. This has never changed since humans started telling stories and is detailed in Aristotle's "Poetics" (335 BC).
Every story begins with with an inciting incident that reverses the protagonist's world and his goal is to set it right. That's his object of desire. Through the middle he is met with many obstacles that keep him from obtaining his desire. Each obstacle gets more severe until he is given one last intense chance to obtain his goal. This climax produces the story's true meaning where he obtains or does not obtain his desire.
To write a story well-told, a writer cannot escape the quest and writers who do not consciously or unconsciously know how to create a quest cannot tell a story well-told.
Does a painter learn how to paint by simply painting?
Does a pianist learn how to score a symphony or play a piano by simply sitting down and start playing?
Does a carver create a statue by simply hammering a block of stone?
There are many folk artists who do very well and can create sublime art without any training but they are few and far between.
And there are prodigies who have unfathomable talent but the reality is that most humans are not born naturally gifted in the arts beyond a desire to create. Therefore we can pass knowledge to others to maximize our talent and crafts and storytelling should not be exempted from the arts as it has been for the last 50 years.
