Literature What's the worst writing advice you've gotten?

[Caligula]

I've been thinking a lot about bad habits I'd picked up in my early roleplay and fanfic days. Abuse of ellipsis is one that sticks out the most, but it doesn't count as advice.

I guess this one thing would count as advice even if it wasn't directed at me personally. I saw this mostly in fanfic circles, but I've seen it a couple of times from professional writers. It's this thing where if someone feels a certain trope or trait is overdone (often done terribly) that no one should do it ever. They probably don't mean it this way entirely, but when I was younger, I took it pretty literally and for a short time, my character writing was extremely dull because I felt I couldn't take chances. I think instead of telling a first-time writer "don't do this" it'd be best to say "do it better" and tell them specifically what needs work.

 

[girl_on_fire]

"Never start a sentence with 'and', 'or', or 'but'."

What a load of bs. Of course you can start your sentence with and/or/but.

I do it all the time. And it's perfectly fine.

 

[Winter_Wolf]

"Never start a sentence with 'and', 'or', or 'but'."

What a load of bs. Of course you can start your sentence with and/or/but.

I do it all the time. And it's perfectly fine.

I think it's great in certain situations if you want to take advantage of the abruptness for whatever effect. To be wry, dramatic, etc. I'd say that it is fine if not overused, which really goes with any writing technique.

"Johnny loved her with the most powerful love I have ever seen. And he made sure she knew it everyday."
"Sure, you could. Or you could just not."
"I would love to go! But that would require me to get out of the bed."


Anyways for me, not using "said" when writing dialogue.

I think that variation is good, but constantly pulling out the thesaurus can also be distracting. On top of that, you should probably try not to write "John said"/"said John" and that sort of thing after every line of dialogue anyways. Personally I try to drop the he said she said as soon as possible in a 1 v 1 dialogue (different story if it's a group obviously) in my novel writing.

 

[Elernia]

"Never start a sentence with 'and', 'or', or 'but'."

What a load of bs. Of course you can start your sentence with and/or/but.

I do it all the time. And it's perfectly fine.

When I was in the middle of my undergraduate studies, one of my professors actually removed points from essays if we started with a conjunction. It was really frustrating, because it's not actually a strict grammatical rule, but rather a stylistic preference.

The worst advice I got was describing as much as possible, with as much detail as possible. I mean like paragraphs of just explaining how things look and feel. This is a stylistic preference as well and I suppose some scenes might call for something like this, but to be honest there are some great pieces of literature out there that don't waterboard the reader with the nitty gritty stuff. Description is good, but I learned from over doing it that it's better to use words sparingly rather than throw them around like dollar bills. So, i guess the take away lesson is: describe, yes, but with moderation, so the reader isn't struggling to comprehend exactly the picture you're painting.

 

[Idea]

Much like the OP, the worst writing advise I've encountered wasn't even really directed at me, but it was one I heard very commonly. It was "There isn't a better writing style, just do what you want to do how you want to do it". I'm not sure if anyone phrased it that way, but it was in variations of it.

At first glance this might seem like great, reassuring advice. Yeah, of course you shouldn't be fretting over not having the perfect writing style, and that each person has their own style and tastes. However, the implication in that sentence is not limited to that- it's that nomatter what someone does, their writing style isn't better or worse for it, just different. In other words, the advise tries to reassure people, but what it ends up suggesting is that it is fundamentally impossible to get better and they shouldn't bother trying.

For one thing, the idea of there not being a better writing style is already absurd in of itself, but to not seek self-improvement is the fastest way to becoming conceited and lazy, all while retaining a mediocre level of writing. I believe people shouldn't be worried that their writing style isn't perfect, and that they deserve reassurance, not by suggesting there is no race, but by helping them to realize they have the potential to reach the finish line and give pointers as to what maybe will help them get there.

 

[The Dark Creator]

"Overpowered characters are never good"
Tell that to my highest rated villain...

 

[Morlock]

"Never start a sentence with 'and', 'or', or 'but'."

What a load of bs. Of course you can start your sentence with and/or/but.

I do it all the time. And it's perfectly fine.

I was still in primary school (I think that is grade school if you are from the U.S) when I asked my teacher about that because I saw it in a novel. She said you can do it but it takes a special skill. Yeah, even at that age I knew she was full of it. The only skill required is knowing that the sentence will sound better if you start it that way.

General writing advice I had was to read to the classics. Those writers are meant to be great. Some are but so often those novels are very slow and have so much unnecessary detail in them. I later found out that the writers would get paid per the word and/or be writing serials for newspapers and would just stretch the stories out as much as possible!

 

[Uriel]

"Don't write."

 

[anaisdeluxxx]

"Never start a sentence with 'and', 'or', or 'but'."

What a load of bs. Of course you can start your sentence with and/or/but.

I do it all the time. And it's perfectly fine.

AMEN!

For me, the most damaging pieces of advice I've ever received were:

♦ NEVER use adverbs
♦ NEVER use the passive voice

But sometimes, you just really need to. All the parts and idiosyncracies of speech have been developed across the centuries for a reason. Granted, some are more useful than others, but they all have their uses.

Adverbs
Adverbs can summarize actions brilliantly. They can be invaluable if you need to describe an action -- but you also need to de-emphasize it so a different part of the sentence would occupy the reader's attention.

For example, compare these two sentences:

• "She let the letter fall from her hand heedlessly, as the realization of his betrayal tore at her like broken glass being churned in her gut."
• "She let the letter fall from her hand, not caring where it landed, as the realization of his betrayal tore at her like broken glass being churned in her gut."

By itself, "She let the letter fall from her hand, not caring where it landed" is a stronger construction than "She let the letter fall from her hand heedlessly". But it's precisely because the imagery of the latter is weak that the reader's attention is more drawn to the second part of the sentence: the glass being churned in her gut. Which is the part that I wanted to emphasize.

(Yes, those are pretty hideous examples, but they're the best illustrations I can come up with on short notice.)

Personally, I think adverbs also add a certain whimsical tone. Victorian fairytale-type stories use a lot of adverbs, I've noticed.

The Passive Voice
Similarly, the passive voice is great when you need to show an action, but specifying who is committing it would just muddy up the paragraph. This usually happens when there are too many characters present.

Wow, this went on longer than I thought it would.

Anyway. I think the most important thing is to be able to communicate what you need to communicate, not adhering rigidly to specific writing rules.

 

[Morlock]

I have never understood Rhyme and Metre in poetry. I also don't get why Free form poetry has rhyme and metre it seems to go against the concept of it being "Free form" if it has to adhere to rules. Furthermore some of the blandest poetry I have ever read has, on a technical level been "perfect" but it still gets beaten to a pulp by poetry written by people who in some cases can't even spell. Emotion and being genuine is everything.

 

[Idea]

I have never understood Rhyme and Metre in poetry. I also don't get why Free form poetry has rhyme and metre it seems to go against the concept of it being "Free form" if it has to adhere to rules. Furthermore some of the blandest poetry I have ever read has, on a technical level been "perfect" but it still gets beaten to a pulp by poetry written by people who in some cases can't even spell. Emotion and being genuine is everything.

See the problem with that one is that writing well and writing in a what you want to read are two separate things. Quality is a distinct trait inherent to the work of art. Though what it is nebulous, one can assert that some things make the art better and others will make it worse. However, specific tastes will not always recognize what makes the art better as more likeable. Writing advise helps you write well, but whether you like or dislike something is disconnected from whether it is written well.

 

[Morlock]

See the problem with that one is that writing well and writing in a what you want to read are two separate things. Quality is a distinct trait inherent to the work of art. Though what it is nebulous, one can assert that some things make the art better and others will make it worse. However, specific tastes will not always recognize what makes the art better as more likeable. Writing advise helps you write well, but whether you like or dislike something is disconnected from whether it is written well.

It applies to a lot of things. A film can be well made, well directed and acted etc but still in the end suck if the story or content is boring or bad. Same with writing, technically correct or even brilliant doesn't mean interesting to read/view/watch etc

 

[Idea]

It applies to a lot of things. A film can be well made, well directed and acted etc but still in the end suck if the story or content is boring or bad. Same with writing, technically correct or even brilliant doesn't mean interesting to read/view/watch etc

Yes- but "boring" is a subjective term. Because of that, it's impossible to advise anyone regarding it. Yes, you can advise ways in which a story will generally be less boring, but that advise will always pertain to the technical quality of a story. Which is not to say there isn't still bad advise, and things which are just technical without actually improving the story. Simply that the criteria "this is boring" isn't really a statement about the story's quality and therefore not one about any advise's quality either. Because it has to do with your enjoyment of the story, not the story itself.

Still, I don't want to turn this into more of a discussion than it already is. I just felt the need to bring it up. I do apologize for the bother.

 

[Morlock]

Yes- but "boring" is a subjective term. Because of that, it's impossible to advise anyone regarding it. Yes, you can advise ways in which a story will generally be less boring, but that advise will always pertain to the technical quality of a story. Which is not to say there isn't still bad advise, and things which are just technical without actually improving the story. Simply that the criteria "this is boring" isn't really a statement about the story's quality and therefore not one about any advise's quality either. Because it has to do with your enjoyment of the story, not the story itself.

Still, I don't want to turn this into more of a discussion than it already is. I just felt the need to bring it up. I do apologize for the bother.

It's ok, I feel like we are saying much the same thing anyway. "Boring" is subjective however when you get too many people thinking something is boring the overall technical quality of the work is irrelevant.

 

[Idea]

I disagree, but I'll leave that discussion to another time.

 

[Jaeger010]

"Don't ever kill off characters, people will stop reading"

BULL.

SHIT.

 

[AnimeGenork]

Anyways for me, not using "said" when writing dialogue.

I think that variation is good, but constantly pulling out the thesaurus can also be distracting. On top of that, you should probably try not to write "John said"/"said John" and that sort of thing after every line of dialogue anyways. Personally I try to drop the he said she said as soon as possible in a 1 v 1 dialogue (different story if it's a group obviously) in my novel writing.

Everything about this
I once read a book where the author legit used "genuflected" as a dialogue tag

Like what the actual hell

"Never start a sentence with 'and', 'or', or 'but'."

What a load of bs. Of course you can start your sentence with and/or/but.

I do it all the time. And it's perfectly fine.

Do it all the time
But it's so fun, I can't not do it


I suppose the worst advice I've ever gotten is the adverbs thing. Although I respect Stephen King, I do not agree with his thing in On Writing in which he says "Adverbs are not your friends." They are, in fact, my best friends, and I use them because I find they're the only way I can get my imagery across.

So--sorry? But, Writing World, do you really want me to sacrifice my imagery for what's considered "right"?

No? Didn't think so. c:

 

[Abendrot]

"A paragraph consists of five sentences. The first is your introduction. It is then followed by three details about the subject. Finally, you wrap up the paragraph with a conclusion. A properly constructed paragraph is imperative to writing" The American Public Education System.

 

[PhoenixMire]

I’ve had people tell me to stop writing a certain genre or just a certain thing I enjoyed. I understand valid critique, but there’s a big difference between valid critique and people flat out telling you to stop writing something you like and start writing something you dislike.

 

[Onmyoji]

"If you're not aiming to get published, don't write, because it's a waste of time."

Sure it is. And so is reading, because you're not doing anything productive, right? All hobbies are a waste of time, if you look at it that way. But isn't having fun important for your mental health?

 

[Lord Aphrodite]

“Don’t describe how your female character’s body looks, it comes off sexual.”

Bull crap. Utter bull crap. Can I not describe their body type? Or do I need to be such a prude that I can only describe her face? And why does this not apply to men? I’m sorry 15 year old me, you should have never listened, you weren’t trying to be sexual.

 

[PhoenixMire]

“Don’t describe how your female character’s body looks, it comes off sexual.”

Bull crap. Utter bull crap. Can I not describe their body type? Or do I need to be such a prude that I can only describe her face? And why does this not apply to men? I’m sorry 15 year old me, you should have never listened, you weren’t trying to be sexual.

Wait what? What kind of double standard is that? If you said that a female character was “slim, with a toned body”, would someone attack you for being sexual? What about if you used that exact same description on a guy? Would they still attack you?
Seems silly to me...

 

[Idea]

Wait what? What kind of double standard is that? If you said that a female character was “slim, with a toned body”, would someone attack you for being sexual? What about if you used that exact same description on a guy? Would they still attack you?
Seems silly to me...

To be fair (though I also don't agree with the advice), they probably encountered a lot of people that described female characters like "she had a really big but and a D cup. Her hair was like super long and beautiful and she was fit like an athlete waiting for..." shit like that. I assume as much because this wouldn't be a double standard, simply on account it's a lot easier to encounter people that do this over people that start by describing the size of the guy's lower organ

 

[Lord Aphrodite]

Wait what? What kind of double standard is that? If you said that a female character was “slim, with a toned body”, would someone attack you for being sexual? What about if you used that exact same description on a guy? Would they still attack you?
Seems silly to me...

To be fair (though I also don't agree with the advice), they probably encountered a lot of people that described female characters like "she had a really big but and a D cup. Her hair was like super long and beautiful and she was fit like an athlete waiting for..." shit like that. I assume as much because this wouldn't be a double standard, simply on account it's a lot easier to encounter people that do this over people that start by describing the size of the guy's lower organ

Idea explained it pretty well. The message they were giving me was that of "Don't describe her cup size, or backside or how flat her stomach was" when in all reality, i was describing it exactly how you said. I've literally used the sentence, "She had brown hair, and a slim, muscular body."

But the person gave me the impression that I shouldn't describe their body at all, or else I was some sexual weirdo. Worst advice ever. I'm glad I moved past that advice.

 

[Saccharine Cyanide]

Never write fantasy or science fiction because anything you write that hasn't actually really personally happened to you is inherently bad. Only stuff written from experience is valid.

Genre fiction snobbery at its finest.