Let’s talk about writing advice. Nowadays, telling someone not to follow writing advice is as cliché as the writing advice in question. Write what you know – but you can also write what you don’t know (it’s called imagination). Don’t use adverbs – unless they work for the story you’re telling.  To make things worse, there are literally millions of “How-To” books out there (okay, not a million, but it feels that way) espousing the best way to write, most of which promise to help you write the next bestseller or be the next Stephen King. It’s all really very confusing.

It certainly doesn’t help that writers are a nervous bunch. Some might say that we lack self-esteem. Maybe we even lack basic confidence in our work. As such, we often just want someone to tell us that what we are writing is okay, that we meet the standard, that we’re not wasting our time and effort.  We want someone to tell us how to be successful. So, we search for the writing advice, but we see the contradictions. Does writing advice work or doesn’t it? Continue reading A Few Words on Writing Advice | Dobbin Blog →