The internet is full of terrible writing advice.
There, I said it.
From social media, to Reddit threads, to random blogs, you’ve probably seen countless writing tips from people who—let’s be real—may or may not be qualified to give that advice.
How to sort through it all and find what actually holds water?
Hi, I’m Kaitlin. I’m a professional copyeditor for indie romance authors, and you can find my qualifications for what I’m about to talk about here. Hopefully this blog post will help clear up some confusion and give you a giant boatload of permission to ignore randos on the world wide web and do what works for you and your book.
With that out of the way…
Here are six terrible (but common) pieces of writing advice, and my suggestions as a copyeditor for what to do instead.
This seems to be common advice—especially in the indie author space. Authors want to hook readers right away, so they’re often urged to cut the prologue and start on the front story immediately.
I have a couple theories why this advice gets tossed around so often.
It might be because some readers do confess to skipping prologues (and even epilogues!).
It might be because prologues, when not solidly crafted, can weaken readers’ experience of the whole book.
This doesn’t mean that including a prologue will ruin your book.
Answering the following questions—and adjusting as necessary—will help you avoid some common pitfalls that authors can make with their prologues.
If there is valuable information in your prologue, what happens if readers don’t have that information before starting Chapter 1? In other words, will they miss out on crucial information if they skip it?
Does the prologue give too much information too soon? Does it prevent the reader from experiencing the story along with the protagonist?
Does it create too much tension by revealing something from the end of the story? Will it make readers want to rush too quickly through the book to find out what happens at the end?
At the end of the day, the dilemma really isn’t whether to include a prologue or not. It’s about whether the prologue strengthens your book as a whole (yay!) or weakens your readers’ experience of it (nay).
You’ll know a prologue is right for your book if:
It’s not just an info-dump.
It tells the reader something valuable.
It can’t just become “Chapter 1.”
Best practice? If you can, incorporate the content in your prologue into chapter one. But if you can’t, go ahead and keep it. Steer away from the pitfalls above and it will be fine. I promise.
“Only write in first person!” “Only write in third person!” “Books should always be written in the present tense!”
Girl. Seriously. Who cares?
Past tense or present tense, first person or third person—every one of these is totally fine. This also goes for whether you should have one POV or several.
Sure, some readers have preferences for one tense or POV over another. You can’t please everyone. (But you knew that already.)
For what it’s worth: I have never stopped reading a book because I didn’t like the tense or person, and I think most readers feel the same. As long as it’s consistent throughout your novel, your tense or POV matters a lot less than what some people say it does.
Your story is exactly that: YOUR STORY. My best tip? Trust your instincts, and leave this advice in the trash.
This CAN be good writing advice—if your creativity thrives on consistent writing time. Committing to write every day helps some writers show up for themselves and their story, and their brain conveniently tags along.
Not everyone’s brain works like that.
If you love a schedule, if you need to keep yourself accountable, or if you have the privilege of time—then go for it. More power to you.
However, if you don’t sit down to write every single day because it doesn’t work for you, that doesn’t make you less of a writer.
It’s helpful to remember that being a novelist doesn’t always look like sitting at a desk typing away on your keyboard either. There are many behind-the-scenes ways to invite your brain into the creative process without forcing it.
For example, running through scene ideas in your head in the shower, reading books in your genre for inspiration, or taking a walk and letting your imagination flow can all be part of a healthy creative writing process.
Yes, consistency in writing is important if you want to finish what you start and grow in your craft. However, you won’t corner your brain into a creative state just because your checklist says to write 500 words a day.
Instead? Figure out what consistency looks like for you and your life, and run with that.
This one’s catchy. That doesn’t make it true!
New writers are sometimes told to avoid using “said” as a main dialogue tag, and to substitute longer, more descriptive words instead. The idea behind this advice is that “said” is boring, repetitive, and obsolete.
Wrong! (Insert buzzer sound.)
“Said” is still the most common dialogue tag, but that means it’s basically invisible to the reader. They see it but don’t actively register it. Sometimes this is exactly what you want! When the story needs to flow naturally, without emphasizing how a character is speaking, “said” is still your best choice.
Does that mean you should never use other words instead? Definitely not!
Longer, fancier words like “retorted,” “interrupted,” or “exclaimed,” stand out more. In certain contexts, maybe that’s exactly what you’re going for. In other situations, however, it’s just going to feel pretentious or cumbersome. When the tags start to stand out, your story suffers because readers start paying attention to them and not to the dialogue itself.
Moral of the story: Choose your dialogue tags intentionally. You can certainly use words other than “said.” Just make sure they serve the narrative and aren’t just replacing “said” because someone once told you you couldn’t.
One last point: If you feel you need to be overly creative to get your point across, that could be a sign your surrounding prose isn’t strong enough. You may need to rewrite parts of it so the dialogue tags aren’t responsible for all the heavy lifting.
While you’re revising your book, I highly recommend this article on examples of common dialogue tags and how to use them. I share it all the time with authors I work with writing their first novel!
This piece of advice refers to the great plotter versus pantser debate.
“The what?” you might be asking.
Let me break it down.
You might be a “plotter” if you prefer to create an outline for your books before you write first drafts. You set up the beginning, ending, plot twists, main character arcs, and more, as well as timelines for each. This method helps make sure you’re avoiding common plotting mistakes before you’ve written too much.
For some writers, though, this is wayyyy too much structure and formality for such a creative process.
If this is you, congratulations! You might be a “pantser.”
A “pantser” prefers to dive right in and begin writing the manuscript. You discover the story structure, the character development, and everything else as you’re writing. In other words, you write by the seat of your pants. While this may sound a bit chaotic, this is the way some people’s brains work the best. So if it works for you…..ignore the naysayers and keep on pantsing!
Outlining a novel can be very helpful. But there’s nothing wrong with using a different approach. The important part is figuring out what works best for you to get that novel written.
This isn’t terrible advice, unless you take it to mean that you should ONLY show and NEVER tell.
This is similar to the dialogue tag advice. Sometimes showing is better. Sometimes telling is better. It depends on the context in your book and what will best serve that particular scene.
This is one of those instances where you’ll have to make a judgment call as an author, then work with a professional editor for anything you’re stuck on.
Did you notice a trend in this post?
I’ll say it again: My best advice is to do what works for YOU and YOUR novel. You don’t need to follow arbitrary rules, especially if they come from sources who aren’t editors, publishing experts, or published authors themselves.
If you’re ready to move beyond random bits of bad advice, send me a message and let’s get working on what will make your novel its very best!
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