1. Advice that demoralizes you. One
young poet despaired when a teacher told her to put her poems in a
drawer for ten years before sending them out. That advice plays into a
paralyzing perfectionism. You can usually manage to see your words
through fresh eyes in only a few days or weeks.
2.
Advice that limits your potential.
Could it be true, as a novelist once wrote, that if you’ve left a novel
unfinished for a few years, you may as well forget about it? Not if
your passion for project is still there or can be resurrected.
3.
Advice that cramps your imagination.
Should you only write from your own point of view or about a group to
which you belong? No, that’s too rigid. Great fiction has been written
from the point of view of the opposite gender or from another era or
culture. It’s all about pretending.
4. Advice suggesting that what works for you is nonetheless wrong.
One novelist worried when told it was best to “Get the story out first,
then polish.” His own method was to polish each section before moving
on. That worked for him because he never became paralyzed by obsessing
over every minor detail to the detriment of making any progress at all.
5. Advice that’s more market-oriented than you are.
You may often hear, “Anticipate what the audience wants and then give it
to them.” While that has worked well for some authors, others can’t
create at all if they’re not pursuing their passions. There’s a time to
focus on whether your work is the best it can be for reaching the
audience you have in mind. But to prematurely zero in on what you think
“they” want can be inhibiting.
6.
Advice that’s impossible to follow.
My favorite example of this is “Don’t think.” I, for one, can’t write
from my toes, elbows, or even my heart. The trick, of course, is to take
this less literally, and to learn to think in more inclusive ways than
the usual grocery-list-compiling way.
7.
Crazy-making advice. Examples:
“Read everything,” or its reverse, “Don’t read at all when you’re
writing.” Obviously one can’t read everything, even in a particular
genre. Focusing on junk leaves little time for the good stuff. I like to
immerse myself in the kind of work I’d like to produce myself. As I
read so many books, I’m not worried about imitating someone’s voice.
8.
Advice that insists there’s only one correct way to write, propose, query, or submit your work.
Should you always avoid adverbs? Never use the passive voice? Never
start a sentence with “there are”? Every one of these “rules” is broken
constantly by top writers. And while there are established formats for
query letters, nonfiction book proposals, and novel synopses, for every
successful sale based on those formats, there are numerous exceptions.
(Source:
blogs.psychcentral.com)
