Open Thread: Oracle Hotline

[mithen]

--What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?

Ha! Um, most writing advice has some good in it at some level, it's usually the way it's taken that I disagree with. Like "write what you know," which I think is fine advice when taken as "use your own experiences as a springboard" but bad advice when taken as "your stories shouldn't go far outside your own experiences." But that all hinges on your definition of "know," after all.

Writing this week has been pretty much non-existent--lots of brainstorming with my husband, which is great fun, but not much putting words on the screen. I've taken to using my 2 half-hour bus commutes as writing time--I hate writing in public, but with the November work load it's either write in public or don't write! If I write on the bus I can go to bed at night knowing I got at least 100-200 words written (it's a lot slower going tapping on an ipad on the bus as well...) Though I'm quite happy with what I've managed to write, so I'm not actually in that bad of a mood! How about you?

Comments

[prince0froses]

I agree that bad writing advice is usually in the delivery. My quibble with the big one that gets floated around of 'you must write' boils down to the implied ableism in the notion that everyone with stories to tell can lives up to it, for example, it does not bother me when I see it more kindly delivered. Though, I have met at least one person who takes 'write what you know' completely literally and pretty much only thinks I should be writing quirky memoirs or observational stuff. Said individual has a proven dislike of fantasy escapist literature though so I don't hold her opinion all that highly.

This has been a Bad Week. The kind that gets Bad Week written capitalized - I have taken some notes about world building details but that's all the progress I have managed

[mithen]

Though, I have met at least one person who takes 'write what you know' completely literally and pretty much only thinks I should be writing quirky memoirs or observational stuff. Said individual has a proven dislike of fantasy escapist literature though so I don't hold her opinion all that highly.

Ha! This person sounds rather like my mother, who distrusts fiction in all forms: "It didn't happen, so why should I care?" She's lots of fun on movie night (the only movie I've known her to like recently is Argo, because "it really happened so it matters.") :P

Ugh, I am sorry about your Bad Week in so many ways! I hope this week has been better. *waves at you from Chicago*