The transcript discusses various pieces of commonly given but often unhelpful writing advice that the speaker believes should be reconsidered. Here’s a summary of the main points:
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Debunking Bad Advice: The speaker, Allison, mentions frequently encountered bad writing advice, such as needing to write every day, not starting stories with clichés (like dreams or driving scenes), and thinking that the word “said” is boring.
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Writing Flexibility: She encourages writers to feel free to start their stories in any way they choose, as long as they do it well. Using traditional tropes can still be effective if they’re presented in a fresh and engaging manner.
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Dialogue Tags: The speaker suggests that dialogue tags like “said” are often viewed as boring, but they can be quite effective when used properly. Overly fancy tags can distract from the writing.
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Writing Routine: It’s emphasized that while writing regularly is beneficial, it’s not a strict requirement. Many writers have other commitments. They should utilize whatever time they have, rather than feeling guilty for not writing daily.
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Education and Experience: Allison points out that a formal degree in creative writing isn’t necessary to succeed as a writer. Writers can enhance their craft through self-education available online and by drawing on their experiences, without being confined to what they know.
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Final Thoughts: She advocates for writers to gather and share their experiences and suggestions about terrible writing advice, hinting at a potential follow-up discussion if there’s enough interest.
In essence, the transcript encourages writers to break free from restrictive advice and embrace a more flexible and personalized approach to their craft.
Have you ever gotten writing advice so bad that it makes you make this face? It’s usually from people who have never written anything more than an email or that little note in the back of their friend’s yearbook: “Have a great summer! Stay cool!”
Hi, I’m Allison, author and creative warrior, and today I’m going to be sharing some terrible writing advice and how you can take it, flip it on its head, and use it to your advantage. If you think of some terrible writing advice that you’ve heard as we go along, make sure to throw it in the comments, and maybe I’ll even get enough for a part two!
So, the first piece of terrible writing advice I want to talk about is: “You have to write every day.”
Oh, you’re a writer! You must write every single day! You might spend hours just writing and immerse yourself in your book. And yeah… no. Look, if you can write every day, you should definitely try. If you have little pockets of time available to you, you should try to use those for writing, especially if you have publication goals or if you’re trying to make writing a career. You should definitely dedicate time as often as possible to your craft.
But if you can’t write every day, it’s okay! Most of us have other jobs; we have families, commitments, and animals, which are basically like children—sorry parents, I know they’re not—but they take a lot of time and effort. So it’s really hard for us to write every day. Just because something’s hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it, but when we hear this advice—“You should write every day” or “You have to write every day”—and then we can’t write every day, we start to feel guilty. We start to feel like we’re not a writer or we don’t care enough about our writing, and then that guilt builds up.
When we do this, we get overwhelmed, and we don’t even want to write. We get scared to go back to our writing because what’s the point? “I can’t write every day; I must not be a writer.” Scratch that! Erase it from your brain. Do what you can! Like I said, if you have little pockets of time every day, that’s enough! Maybe it’s even 15 minutes between practices or in carpool line, but even if you don’t have that and you do have an hour once a week that you know you can dedicate your full attention to your craft and your project, do that! Forget what the haters say. Don’t feel bad about it; don’t feel guilty. You are making an effort, and you are doing what works for you and your life.
The next piece of terrible writing advice I would like to address is this little number: “Said is boring; make sure to use something else.”
Look, a lot of people think you need to get crazy when it comes to your dialogue tags. They think if you use “said” over and over, then you obviously couldn’t think of something else to say; you’re unoriginal; you’re boring. No! You’re just practical. If done well, “said” is basically just background noise, and really, no matter how much you use it, your reader is not going to notice. You know what they will notice? Fancy, schmancy dialogue tags that look like you were using a thesaurus because you didn’t want to use the word “said.”
“He murmured, she remarked, he articulated, she uttered, he declared… I do declare, he divulged.” That’s going to get a little out of control, and eventually you’re going to run out of words. Let the action of the characters speak for them. For example: “I don’t think so.” His tongue felt heavy, and he noticed Sarah leaning toward him to hear him better. Boom! We can gather from this information that this character might be mumbling or murmuring because there’s something wrong with his tongue and the person he’s talking to cannot hear him. We didn’t use any sort of tag; we didn’t say “murmured,” we didn’t say “mumbled,” we didn’t even say who was speaking because we can gather that from the action that is happening.
Of course, there are times when you’re going to want to use words like “whispered,” and that’s totally fine. And even that last sentence was a little long if we’re trying to write flash fiction where every word counts. So just use your best judgment, but know that it’s okay to say “said.”
Okay, the next piece of terrible writing advice is one I particularly do not like: “Don’t start your story with a dream,” or “insert some sort of device here” (like driving in front of a mirror). You’ve probably heard this advice a lot, and I think it’s BS! You can start your story however you want; just do it well!
If you’re going to start your story with a dream, make it different. Add your own twist. If you’re starting with a dream, maybe they realize they can’t wake up and they’re trapped in the dream. If you’re opening with a driving scene, maybe they realize they’re not driving the car; it’s driving on its own. These rules are generally put in place because these devices get used over and over and they eventually become boring and cliché. If you can use these without making them boring and cliché, do it!
There are boring and cliché tropes being used every single day in TV and movies, and we still watch them! So as long as you can do it in a way that is new and engaging, go for it!
Next piece of terrible writing advice you might have heard: “You have to get a degree in creative writing.”
Um, no! This is definitely not true. You don’t have to get a degree in creative writing or an MFA to be a writer. I’m not saying don’t do it—if you want to study the craft and improve your writing and that’s the way that you want to do it, more power to you! I have a degree in creative writing. But if you think you have to study it and have those degrees to be a successful writer, you don’t.
Learn about writing? Yes! Learn the rules of writing so that you can break them in new and inventive ways. Learn about the tools you can use and the different styles and genres of writing, but you know where you can do that without paying thousands of dollars? The internet! Learning is literally at our fingertips every single day, so don’t feel pressured to get a fancy degree to move your career forward.
In fact, if you are just going into school and trying to decide what to study, I would suggest studying something that is going to practically help move your career forward, like marketing. I think they even have a digital marketing degree now! I wouldn’t know; it’s been a while since I’ve been out of school. But do something that will help you build your brand or the business side of your writing, because that’s the part that writers hate. So you might as well know how to do it and do it well. It will probably help you get a job that can support your writing and your career until you can make it full-time. You got this!
And the last piece of terrible writing advice I have for you is: “Write what you know.” I hate this piece of advice the most! If I only wrote what I knew, I probably wouldn’t write a whole lot. I’m not saying this to put myself down; I’m just saying there’s a lot of knowledge out there that I have not had the chance to discover and a lot of experiences I have not had yet.
I think this advice can hold a lot of writers back. They’ll have an idea, they’ll get going, and then they’ll let their progress grind to a halt because they start to get worried that they don’t have enough experience or knowledge to write on the topic. But what did we just say in the last section? There is a world of knowledge available to us—available at your fingertips!
Now I do think there is some truth here: your writing is going to be most powerful if it comes from a place of experience. Start there; weave your experience into your writing. But don’t feel limited to topics that you’re an expert on. If you’re going to write about medieval England, you sure as heck should know what kinds of technologies existed and didn’t, how people talked, and what the societal dynamics were like. But you know where you can learn that? The internet!
So don’t feel confined to write only what you know; use your experience to enhance your writing, and when you don’t know, research!
So those are five pieces of terrible writing advice that I’ve heard a heck of a lot, and I’m sure you have too. Hopefully, that helped you see that you can take that advice, turn it around, and actually use it in a way that works for you. Take it all with a grain of salt. If you’ve heard some terrible writing advice that I did not include here, throw it in the comments and maybe I’ll even make a part two.
Thanks for listening, warriors! Now go fight for your creativity!
Reference
- Original Source: https://youtu.be/DahCm5vqiMs