Writing Advice I Don't Vibe With

This is my unimpressed face.

If you Google "writing advice" or read books on craft, you're going to find a massive amount of material at your disposal. Naturally, I've sifted through a lot of such content over the past decade, and I've found some pieces of advice that make sense to me and have been helpful, but others that have been rather unhelpful, especially regarding prose fiction. As an unpublished writer, I realize that calling certain pieces of writing advice "trash" might seem silly, because I clearly don't know any better. However, a lot of the writing advice that bothers me is about process rather than product, and everyone has a completely different process.

Thus, basically all writing advice is, to some extent, garbage. It's all subjective, because everyone will approach writing differently. Advice that is incredibly helpful to me might be useless to other people; advice that I thought was unhelpful might be useful or even validating for others. Nevertheless, I would like to talk about prose writing advice I personally don't vibe with.

1. All first drafts suck, apparently.

Look, I get where this advice is coming from: A lot of writers get discouraged by whether or not their work is "good enough" and don't finish the first draft. Other writers could afford to embrace revision. However, I still think it's misleading to proclaim that all first drafts are going to be a mess. The project I'm currently revising is undergoing its second round of major revision - obviously, it needed some work. I'm probably going to rewrite the whole thing, to be honest. But, the previous manuscript I finished was the best first draft I ever completed. Revisions were minimal because I was very careful about revising as I created the first draft. I had great outline and a sub-outline, and the story just flowed well. That being said...

2. Thinking is not writing?

Thinking is writing. Outlining is writing. I know this because the more time I spend thinking and outlining, the better my first draft turns out. Again, I understand where this piece of advice comes from: Some writers will think and outline and forever and never even begin to write, and that's an issue. But, if this is part of someone's process, and they do end up completing manuscripts regardless, I don't see how it matters.

3. Hand writing first? No one cares.

I don't see the purpose in hand writing drafts. Unless it feels more informal and less "concrete" to scribble your words out in handwriting first, I don't see how it will mean anything to everyone else.

4. Character-driven, plot-driven, blah, blah, blah...

"Character-driven" is such a buzz term right now. Everyone wants a "character-driven" book rather than a "plot-driven" book, it seems... but what does that even mean? I must admit, I always felt a little stupid when I found myself confused by this piece of advice, but Fonda Lee summed it up best:

5. Write for your audience: a paradox.

"Write for your audience, not yourself," the world told me. But, I write science fiction, fantasy, and poetry. These are some of my favorite genres to read. If I'm writing science fiction for adults, then my audience is adult science fiction fans. "But who are adult science fiction fans?" Me. I am an adult science fiction fan.

6. "Kill your darlings." I'd have nothing left.

This is one of the pieces of advice Stephen King gave in his memoir On Writing, which was such an interesting read even though not all of his advice worked for me. It seems that many writers are a bit indulgent: The end up with a lot of content, and not all of it is necessary. The opposite happens to me. My first drafts are generally on the shorter side because I blaze through getting each scene hammered out and forget to describe things visually. During my first revision of a book, I have to make sure I have enough description, because description is always stingy during my first go at a story. So, the "kill your darlings" advice doesn't work for me at all.

I want to reiterate that these pieces of advice don't work for me personally; if they work for you, that's awesome! Everyone is different and I love hearing about everyone's unique process. In the future, I plan to discuss the writing advice that has benefited me most, and I'll be revealing a bit about my own personal process for those who are interested.