NEW VIDEO: WRITING ADVICE I DON’T AGREE WITH

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DISCLAIMER: This is my opinion

1. Passive voice is always bad

• There are so many tests/checkers for identifying passive voice in your writing and it has become a rule to change every instance of its occurrence.
  
• Why?
• Yes, I get that it isn’t as exciting and makes your plot/characters seem passive rather than active. Maybe it doesn’t make for great prose.
• But it does have its place.
• I think that one/two/five passive voice sentences in a book are fine. Will you really get burned at the stake if you have the sentence “Her heart had been broken” in your manuscript?
• Maybe I’m just missing something.
• Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying every second sentence should be passive voice. I’m just saying that you don’t have to change every single passive sentence in your work.

2. Real writers write every day

• Listen, I’ve been writing for thirteen years. I’m always working on a project and I take my writing very seriously. I AM a writer. But I don’t think there’s ever been a period in my life where I wrote every single day.
  
• Yes, if you schedule time to write every day and you manage to stick to it, you’re amazing. And you’ll probably be published quicker.
• But that doesn’t mean that other writers aren’t serious about their writing or aren’t “real” writers.
• Sometimes, life gets in the way. Sometimes, your creative muscles are really tired and all your words come out crappy. It’s normal.
• It depends on your energy cycle/other responsibilities/goals. If you are working on your WIP and making progress, you’re a writer.
• Don’t be so hard on yourself. Jeez.

3. Only include what is relevant to the plot

• I confess: I am an overwriter. My current WIP is looking to be 150k words, so I’m gonna have to do a LOT of cutting in the editing phase. So yeah, maybe I should take this advice.
  
• But objectively, I don’t believe in the strict application of this rule.
• If JK Rowling/J.R.R Tolkien only included what would move the plot forward, we wouldn’t have the amazing fleshed-out worlds of HP and LotR. The extra, interesting stuff is what makes those stories so amazing.
• So, I think a much better way to think about this is: Only include what is relevant to your CHARACTERS’ LIVES.
• If there is something awesome that your characters do/see that people don’t get to experience in the real world, tell the reader about it. If there’s some fantastical element about your world that the character would definitely notice, describe how the character experiences it. Live through your characters in the world you’ve created.

4.  Every chapter should end on a cliffhanger

• There’s this idea that each chapter should follow a formula: End with a tense reveal/cliffhanger > the next chapter opens with the character’s reaction to said reveal > the middle of the chapter is the mini resolution > the chapter ends with another tense reveal.
  
• This is a great way to structure a chapter. But it gets tedious and overdone if every single chapter follows the same basic steps.
• Ending EVERY chapter on a tense cliffhanger will drain your readers emotionally and numb them to the tense points in the rest of the novel. So, give your readers time to breathe and enjoy the less intense parts of your story too.
• Have a few chapters that don’t end in absolute suspense.

5. Real writers don’t see writing as a business

• “Real” writers are in it for the art. They live apart from the world of mortals and only care about fairy tales and castles in the sky. They are too pure and dainty and creative to concern themselves with something as mundane as money.
  
• You are going to die of hunger.

If you agree with these pieces of advice, good for you. I just don’t. 

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