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20/9/10 21:19![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
owlectomyI hate writing advice that says "You should."
Even more, writing advice that says "You must be THIS TALL to get away with this technique." If you're not a great writer, don't use big words. If you're not a great writer, don't write long sentences. If you're not a great writer, stick to the shallow end and don't break the rules.
Okay, I've read books that made me think, "Okay, there is NO OTHER WRITER who could pull of what you just pulled off. That was genius but it took some guts." (I'll nominate The White Horse Trick by Kate Thompson on that front.)
But a badly written story that follows all the "rules" is still a badly written story. A story that is missing one of its beats at a fundamental level -- a story where the gears just aren't clicking together -- is not going to be improved by listening to someone else's rules. It's one thing to say, "This isn't vivid to me," "The repeated sentence structures are starting to grate on me," and another thing entirely to say "Don't use adverbs. Adverbs are stupid."
Show me a writer who is brilliant enough to write audaciously, weirdly, ornately and make it work, and I'll bet you that they used to be just as audacious and weird and ornate when they were writing terrible, terrible stuff, taking chances they weren't good enough to pull off. And it would have been a disservice, I think, to say, "You can't do that. You're not good enough. Stay inside the lines."
I have been to Barnes and Noble and gone from one end of the science fiction section to the other and said "meh." I think that audaciousness -- not cutting out all your long sentences -- is the only thing that has a chance of helping.
Even more, writing advice that says "You must be THIS TALL to get away with this technique." If you're not a great writer, don't use big words. If you're not a great writer, don't write long sentences. If you're not a great writer, stick to the shallow end and don't break the rules.
Okay, I've read books that made me think, "Okay, there is NO OTHER WRITER who could pull of what you just pulled off. That was genius but it took some guts." (I'll nominate The White Horse Trick by Kate Thompson on that front.)
But a badly written story that follows all the "rules" is still a badly written story. A story that is missing one of its beats at a fundamental level -- a story where the gears just aren't clicking together -- is not going to be improved by listening to someone else's rules. It's one thing to say, "This isn't vivid to me," "The repeated sentence structures are starting to grate on me," and another thing entirely to say "Don't use adverbs. Adverbs are stupid."
Show me a writer who is brilliant enough to write audaciously, weirdly, ornately and make it work, and I'll bet you that they used to be just as audacious and weird and ornate when they were writing terrible, terrible stuff, taking chances they weren't good enough to pull off. And it would have been a disservice, I think, to say, "You can't do that. You're not good enough. Stay inside the lines."
I have been to Barnes and Noble and gone from one end of the science fiction section to the other and said "meh." I think that audaciousness -- not cutting out all your long sentences -- is the only thing that has a chance of helping.