Comments on: When Good Advice Goes Bad (intro)

By: Diana Peterfreund Blog | Rumors

Diana Peterfreund Blog | Rumors — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:37:39 +0000

[...] panel gets handed down as if it’s the Word On High — no vampires! — etc. Lots of good advice goes bad. People fall for stupid lines like, “the kind of agent you can get [...]

By: Brenda Bradshaw

Brenda Bradshaw — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 22:47:00 +0000

I love reading these! Sometimes it’s hard to decided what’s really great advice, and what needs a mental flush.

By: Daria

Daria — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 09:43:00 +0000

It sounds like a great series of articles! I can hardly wait I love your blog anyways

About bad advice: some people mean good, but they have such narrow ideas of right and wrong, they don’t even realize that, for example, some of their “unbreakable rules” are in fact genre conventions. You’ll meet many romance people telling you to never write in first person. Even though it’s an old and respected tradition of mystery genre. I’ve lost count of how many times this particular restricting bit of advice (and no, they never added “in this genre”) creeped up.

By: Kendra Clark

Kendra Clark — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 00:44:00 +0000

Gawd, I’m glad someone else thinks the same way I do. It seems the best advice I can give is break the rules–but do it GOOD! :0

It’s hard to know what to do there are so many “guidelines” out there.

Nice post.

By: Diana Peterfreund

Diana Peterfreund — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 22:23:00 +0000

Yes, Tawny, that’s a great one! Remembering your reader can be such a delicate balancing act — are you making this change because you made a particular promise to the reader, and you need to keep it, or are you kow-towing (spelling?) to some imaginary reader who will bombard you with hate mail if you say “crochet sucks.” I’ll add it to the list (unles syou tink we’ve got it covered here)

(By the way, I love crochet. I’m in the midst of a poncho as we speak.)

Hmmm, Rachel, well I’m inclined to say that at least some of that is just flat out BAD advice (never write in first person? I did!) but I can definitely see other bits going the wrong way unintentionally. I’ll add those to the list.

In general, I’m of the opinion that the “never” folks should take some sort of mind-expanding substance. “Never” to me means “unless you rock it.” Does anyone else read Miss Snark? I don’t agree with everything she says, but there was this hilarious period where she was reading people’s opening paragraphs and remarking on them. She kept saying, “open with action” “don’t put backstory up front” don’t do this, don’t do that, etc. then got this marvelous, lyrical, fairy-tale like opening that was just beautifully writtena nd intriguing and posted something in the vein of, “Um, I take it all back. If you can do it like this, go ahead and do it.”

And that’s how the “all in the execution” line so often batted around arose. Of course, that one comes with its own pitfalls. But more on that later. I have eleven pages of revision to deal with.

By: Rachel Vincent

Rachel Vincent — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 21:38:00 +0000

I'm going to follow along with this discussion. I'm interested because I haven't gotten much advice from other writers or industry professionals, but I have read tons of general "what to do/not to do" statements from writing boards. Sometimes I feel like I'm breaking all the "rules," but that's because a lot of them don't seem relevant to what I'm writing. Here's what I read most often:

Never write in first person.
Never write in present tense.
Never use flashbacks.
Get rid of most of your backstory.
End every chapter with a hook.
Don't exceed 100,000 words.

Are these the kinds of advice you mean?

By: Tanya

Tanya — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 21:33:00 +0000

Dear Diana,

Longtime reader and lurker who saw you in your charming hoodie in Reno, but never went up to you and said "Hey!" Wish I had now. Anyway, here's some Good Advice Gone Bad to add to your list...

I think one of my favorite pieces of good advice gone bad is the ever popular "Remember the reader." Oh, the critique partners who've said, "The reader wouldn't like that. Don't make fun of cats/dogs/pets, because readers have pets."

"Dont say anything negative about X, Y or Z, because it would upset reader faction X, Y and Z."

I got to the point where I was so tied up in what the elusive, mystery "reader" would think, I was losing my voice. And It took a long haul to get it back. I don't think you can write with an imaginary peanut gallery in your head ready to throw arrows if you do something they won't like.

I can think of plenty more GAGB, but am looking forward to your examples.

By: Diana Peterfreund

Diana Peterfreund — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 20:45:00 +0000

We’re defintely not against making mistakes around here! To judge by how often I do so, one would think that making mistakes is my very favorite pasttime.

Later on can I hit you up for an example of WGAGBBTBGA?

By: Jo Leigh

Jo Leigh — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 20:19:00 +0000

I love this idea, Diana. Good stuff to think about and learn from. I will say, however, that some of the mistakes I made were the best things that could have happened to me. If nothing else, they showed me I could keep on plugging, even when it was hardest. So I hope you include some When Good Advice Goes Bad But Then Becomes Good Again.