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There's More?! Reacting to Terrible Writing Advice on Reddit Part 2

Writing with Jenna Moreci

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We found more terrible writing advice on Reddit! I’m sharing some of the worst suggestions
given to writers and trying to turn them into writing tips you can actually use. We’re covering
total gems like “let the characters write themselves,” “cut out ALL adverbs,” “you don’t have to use commas,” and soooo many more. For each piece of oh-so-intellectual “insight,” I’m sharing my take on it as an award-winning author and how you can use these ideas to improve your craft, and I’d love to hear what you think of these Reddit posts.
What’s the most surprising advice anyone has ever given you about writing? Let us know in the comments! 😳

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20 Comments

@Morgan_le_they 2 weeks ago

“Don’t name side characters” is giving “using big words is ableist” energy

@diablorisful 2 weeks ago

Having the "Don't write anything you hadn't experienced" and "Your characters must have nothing in common with you" back to back is pure gold.
I mean, if you apply both, you literally can't write anything.

@PawsOnTheBalcony 2 weeks ago

"Don't use commas" is unhinged and leads to classics like "Let's eat Grandma" instead of "Let's eat, Grandma" XD

@GadzWolf11 2 weeks ago

>"My name is Shaft Dangerzone."
Incredible. I will be stealing this.

@yorkieandthechihuahua 2 weeks ago

"It needs more texture..."

"Great, I'll pop out and buy some ancient Egyptian parchment shall I?"

@stgr6669 2 weeks ago

I think, a side character, like any character, should be named when the POV character knows his or her name.

@MsSasoDei 2 weeks ago

I think the first advice about "let your characters write themselves" CAN be good if its meant in the way where the advice is basically like "You planned your characters, good, but when you're writing and something more unfolds about a character that you didn't plan at all, let it happen, see what happens"
Basically, don't be afraid to let your characters out of their planned box if your plan is changing mid writing. I think in that way, the advice can work

@Michael-kq3qo 2 weeks ago

1:12 a better version of this advice is to understand your characters and to write them as if they were actual independent people with their own goals. Try to figure out what they would do.

@hughtube5154 2 weeks ago

Not naming your side characters sounds like advice from screen / playwriting rather than novels. In drama, you can use extras for Man#1 while you would probably need a fully paid actor for SHAFT DANGERZONE (not that Shaft would ever be a side character. Unless he's at The Onion Cellar in Gunter Grass' The Tin Drum, where characters meet up specifically to cry. Shaft don't do that).

@ChestersReviews 2 weeks ago

When I was young, the advice “write what you know” actually kept me from writing at all for quite a while. I didn’t feel like my life was interesting enough to write anything.

@WaywardSon5 2 weeks ago

21:27 "Some of us write clean first drafts." That was me with high school essays. It got to the point that I would write my draft then go in and deliberately add "errors" so my teacher wouldn't mark me down for skipping the first draft when that was the assignment.

@arienrhod1 2 weeks ago

The characters "writing themselves" is a useful diagnostic tool. If a well-developed character "refuses" to do what plot demands of them, it means the plot is crap and I probably need to at least tweak it.

@JayHobsonauthor 2 weeks ago

I tend to overuse commas. It's a weakness in my writing that I have to watch out for.

@DarthAyreon 2 weeks ago

"Let the characters write themselves"
When taken literally, yes this is bad, if not just dumb advice. But I do see what people might mean with this. Sometimes I plan for a few plots points and then the character has grown throughout the writing process and certain plot roles no longer fit that particular character. That gives me two choices. Either rewrite the character to fit the plot I outlined previously, or adjust the plot to the new version of this character. I think the second is most fun for me. I guess it's better phrased as, "Don't be afraid to allow characters to develop as you write". But I don't know if that works for others.

@arcanaj 2 weeks ago

Commas, yeah. I tend to use commas like I'm Johnny Appleseed trying to start a punctuation orchard.

@Nightfire99201 2 weeks ago

The best write what you know advice I have read is the following. "There are two people that wants to know how a crime works, the person commuting the crime and a writer." To me it translates into if you don't know about it, research it and when you finished researching it, you already know it so you can write what you know.

@SoulWhoBelongsInTheForest 2 weeks ago

5:35 About the commas ! I read an author that wrote about debilitating mental illness in her books and in one of them there were paragraphs that every once in a while didn't use commas. It wasn't done throughout the book, but at specific times, to highlight the mental state of the characters, to put the reader in their heads. You literally feel out of breath when you're reading those paragraphs, which I thought was a great artistic choice (and very well done one at that) to support her story and to help readers really feel the emotions the characters were feeling. If you don't want to use commas in some chapters or a few sentences, that's the road I suggest you're taking. It HAS to serve a purpose.

@SophiePf 2 weeks ago

5:57 why are people proud of their lack of skill? 😢
Learning more and improving skills is part of the journey!

@l0stndamned 2 weeks ago

Starting with something actually happening is a good way of phrasing it.

@emilyeshelman5216 2 weeks ago

"Never let the hero" cry sounds like bad writing advice a guy tried to push on me of "villains must always be (physically/visibly) intimidating to be taken seriously as a threat or scary", even when I pointed out numerous counterexamples across multiple genres where the opposite has been just as or even more effective based on context.