I've written alot of crap. Really bad crap at that. Melodramatic, whiny, self-indulgent words. Crap filled with abused adverbs, boring adjectives, useless iteration, and just plain weak verbs.
I've also read alot of crap. Contest submissions, critique partner's work, and student drivel (of course I'm referring to anyone's work who isn't reading this post).
I've heard alot of advice. Advice from brilliant people like my editor at Kensington, Peter Senftleben and PPW contest judge Bill May to ego driven critiques from fellow writers to novice writers filled with writerly RULES.
I've given alot of advice. Not all of it good. In fact, most of it probably didn't help my fellow writers. Not because it was bad advice, even though it could've been. More often than not, it probably didn't fit the writer's or story's style.
So here's my point, all this advice and all these crap words are the reason I'm a better writer than I was a year ago, and why I'll be even better next year. Bad advice means that you are putting yourself out there. You're getting people to read your work and that you are willing to learn and grow as a writer. So I'll take all the advice I can get. Tell me to use Em Dashs, to cut adverbs, to be more descriptive and less campy. I want it all.
What do you think about bad advice? And how do you decide what is good and what is bad advice for your work?
It's pretty easy to separate the good advice from the bad advice when you have spent time in workshops with the same people. It doesn't take long to figure out who to ignore and who is giving criticism that should be taken under consideration when doing revisions. The quality of a writer's work is another way to figure out who to listen to and who to ignore. Also, a published authors' success or lack of it can be taken under consideration, although the method of weeding out their bad advice isn't foolproof considering bad writers can be really good promoters and poorly written books can be what the general public is yearning for. It's probably a good idea to follow the advice of small press authors who are writing full-time considering the traditional NYC presses probably don't think their writing is accessible enough to take a chance on, yet they have tons of readers and are selling more books than the majority of the authors who have books through the traditional presses (although that is also due to their marketing abilities, and it would be good to take their advice regarding that as well).
ReplyDeleteI find some advice is best taken with a grain of salt. I had a Beta reader recently, a "professional" writer with an English degree, who basically wanted me to restructure my entire plot, sequence of events, and emotional level of my MC. It was a case of my style vs. her style. I was glad for her advice, because it forced me to take another look at the story, but in the end, I only made one adjustment. I think writers know their stories. For me, bad advice is something I pause and think on, and good advice is something I can't wait to get to my manuscript and apply.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what "professional" means when it's surrounded by quotes, but I would never take someone's advice because they have an English degree. I have one myself and an MFA in Creative Writing and English Lit classes are extremely different than writing classes. You don't really learn how to write fiction in them, although I guess it doesn't hurt.
ReplyDeleteIt's not a bad thing. She just told me once in conversation that the professors at the university told the English students that graduating as a English major meant they were professional writers. I understand, but it took me some time to realize that my stories were still mine and I didn't have to completely rewrite them to her liking. Honestly, she gives me the toughest feedback, but I still like it.
ReplyDelete"She just told me once in conversation that the professors at the university told the English students that graduating as a English major meant they were professional writers."
ReplyDeleteThat's silly. They're professional writers if they make a living off their writing and an English degree isn't going to help them with that or help them get a novel published. Publishers and agents don't care about degrees.
I find there's not really bad advice, per se, but there's advice that doesn't fit your story or your voice and if you take it, it hurts your writing. There's also the ticklish situation when three different critique partners say opposing things about what they like. For me, there's a little interior PING when someone says something that's right for my work, how to make it better or more clear. (FYI--the captcha is 'calatore' which is an awesome word.)
ReplyDeleteIt's difficult when half a workshop says one thing and then half the workshop says the complete opposite. But in those cases, I think you should either look at who is saying what and whether or not you usually trust their advice. And if one side has more people like that then go with the majority. Or take the advice that you most agree with and ignore the opposing advice. Or come up with a compromise between the two if it's possible to do that without totally screwing up your writing.
ReplyDeleteRight now I'm basically open to any and all advice. I consider it, take it in, and then I figure out if it applies to my writing. Bad advice still gets you thinking, though, which is probably the most important part of it.
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