Day 198: Terrible Writing Advice

I like to frequent writing forums because sometimes I find nuggets of wisdom there that really blow me away. Random people commenting advice that's somehow better than what I've read in published books is great to see. It gives me a little bit of hope in humanity. Of course all that hope is usually dashed if I scroll even a little bit, but I take my wins where I can get them! If you're like me and you enjoy scrolling through forums like these on WordPress, Reddit, Substack, Discord, or anywhere else, then you know they can offer some great tips and tricks to improve your game. It's probably also obvious that most of the advice is hot garbage, but just in case it isn't, here's the worst advice I see, and why I think it's bad.

When someone new asks something along the lines of 'how do I write more without feeling like my writing sucks?' the advice that follows boils down to a couple of comments:

1. Ignore your feelings and write mountains of text while in psychological agony.
2. Drink copious amounts of alcohol to obliterate any sense of wrongdoing.

I don't think either of these are effective methods of writing more. First of all, these are almost always targeted at novices who may not have finished a single story yet. People who might not know any better, in other words. And as for number one, forcing yourself to write more even though you hate what you're writing is just kinda silly. If your brain is telling you that you're doing something wrong, then maybe you should listen. You might not know what it is exactly, but clearly it needs to be addressed. A technical fault, lame dialogue, a premise you find cringeworthy, something is getting in the way.

What I used to do to quiet my brain is to write only what I think I can write easily. Could I tell this story to a friend in conversation? Can I put my own thoughts in order on a page so that it makes sense? Could I describe this object so that an artist would be able to draw it? Writing this stuff is rarely if ever painful because it doesn't feel outside of my capability. It might be boring to read back, but it certainly wasn't painful to write.

From there things can expand to new heights. Could I work this conversational story into a larger context with beginning, middle, and end? Maybe instead of writing my own thoughts, I could write the thoughts of a character I'm interested in exploring. How exotic of an object can I write about without my description falling short? You'll run into failures here while experimenting, but your limits will be much more obvious. Failing to describe a spaceship with one wonky paragraph is much less painful than realizing you suck at describing spaceships 1/3 of the way into your space opera series because you've been ignoring the fact that none of your spaceships make any damn sense.

Then take on the project you really wanted to write with better knowledge of your weaknesses. Work on them as you go. Other weaknesses will pop up during the course of writing a longer piece. Read other authors and develop taste accordingly, and suddenly things you think you had down will seem paper thin. Ultimately I think it does come down to writing through the pain, but hunting down the source of the pain is much better than trying to turn your brain off. It is there for a reason. As long as you aren't completely in the dark, unknowingly ingraining every fault that you might have prevented, then it won't be that bad.

Number two is just the worst. Abusing a substance to improve will do no favors in the same way that turning off your brain will not help you learn. I don't really understand where this comes from exactly, maybe it's the old adage 'write drunk, edit sober' but whenever I do that I just can't fathom what on Earth I was thinking while writing. Maybe it's supposed to be interpreted as 'write drunk on the idea, edit while sobered up from the passing inspiration.' This I can get behind.

By the way, this is not a quote that any real author ever gave. I see it most often attributed to Ernest Hemingway. Here's what Hemingway actually said in his book 'A Moveable Feast.'

'Downstairs I finished my dinner and thought about Scott [Fitzgerald]. It was obvious he should not drink anything and I had not been taking good care of him. Anything that he drank seemed to stimulate him too much and then to poison him and I planned on the next day to cut all drinking to the minimum. I would tell him that we were getting back to Paris now and that I had to train in order to write. This was not true. My training was never to drink after dinner nor before I wrote nor while I was writing.'

So there are the two worst pieces of advice I see on a regular basis. If you disagree, feel free to vehemently express your displeasure with my opinions in the comments, and do let me know about how I'm going to hell for having them. Not that anybody has done that yet, I just think it would be funny.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley