WIP challenge: day 18 check-in!

[littlebutfierce]

Poll #8339 Day 18 check-in

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

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What have you been up to today?

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Writing
2 (33.3%)

Editing
0 (0.0%)

Researching
0 (0.0%)

Taking a break
4 (66.7%)

Sending to beta
0 (0.0%)

Canon refresh
0 (0.0%)

Posting!
1 (16.7%)

& how do you feel about that?

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For discussion: what's the worst writing advice you ever received? What made it inappropriate for you?

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

Today was my long day at work, so I'm not good for much mentally right now! No energy to write or edit fic. Trying to stay awake long enough to eat dinner. *yaaaaaaaawns*

I don't know if I've ever been given writing advice that was utterly heinous, actually!

[jagnikjen]

There's a lovely woman in my writers group. She has a lot of energy and juggles a dozen things and gives back 200% to the writing community. I'm glad I know her and I appreciate all she's done.

However, the two things she always says are a) write--no matter what, and b) support your fellow authors (the ones you know, in our group, etc) by buying their book/s.

I understand the point of both. I really do. (A) doesn't work for me--not because I'm as busy as she is--but it's too much pressure. I tried that and it really, really stressed me out. As far as (b) goes, that's all fine and dandy, but quite frankly, I'd rather not spend $7 on a book I'm not ever going to read. Nor would I expect anyone else to spend their hard earned dollars on my book if it's not their cup of tea.

[jagnikjen]

I forgot to mention I'm taking a break--not necessarily because I want to, but I'm in a cleaning mode and it's way overdue so I'm going with it. :)

[littlebutfierce]

There's a lot of assumptions about how much disposable income people have in that advice to always buy your friends' books, too. :/

[lacygrey]

RL work job that was starting to seriosly bug me is over, finally. The scene I needed to tie up loose ends and which came to me yesterday worked out very easily in the end. Its still on paper though. Tomorrow's goal is 'writing it up' together with a part written last week thats in the same state.

Bad writing advice:I dislike following plot formulae. Its well to know they exist, but I don't like them, either for reading or writing.

[lacygrey]

Come to think of it, I did once have a writing teacher who was a bit over zealous about certain romantic tropes. It annoyed me rather, until I started to appreciate that her eccentricities might give me inspiration for a fictional character...

[littlebutfierce]

Hahaha re: writing your teacher into fiction!

I'm glad your work stress has ended!!

What kind of formulas do you mean?

[lacygrey]

e.g., there has to be an antagonist who is mean.

[littlebutfierce]

Oh, I see! I hadn't heard that one exactly. ^^;;; Seems like a formula for dull stories, tbh...

[lilly_c]

Haven't had time to type anything today or post :( I've been getting my uni work done because one of my assignments is due in on the 7th *eek!* it's getting there... hoping to use some of tomorrow to type up at least 1 fic and if I have time, try and post but we'll see.

Worst advice: to use only one spelling of there and where even though both words have several spellings which also have different meanings and usage. What made it inappropriate for me personally is that I'm dyslexic and I sometimes confuse the correct usage and spelling of those words.

[littlebutfierce]

Well, it's totally reasonable to have to put uni first, alas, even if it sucks to do it! Hope you manage to get everything done & maybe even early enough to go play around w/fic.

I am baffled by the advice to use one spelling of 'there', for anyone!

[taelle]

The poll does not have the 'planning' option, and that's what I did, or at least tried to do.

I keep being told that I should just _write_ even if I don't have the story quite figured out and planned to the end, but it never quite works. Then again, even with planning I have writing troubles, so who knows.

[xpaperplanex]

I also dislike "just writing". Nothing good ever comes out of forcing myself to write with no inspiration or direction, so why would I waste the time?

[littlebutfierce]

I think people suggest it in the sense of doing warmups before physical exercise or practicing scales before you start a music practice session -- the theory is that it helps keep your writing brain limbered up...

[littlebutfierce]

Ooops, I keep leaving options off the poll. ^^;;;

I don't think I write fic long enough to require planning, so pretty much all my fic is of the just-write variety. :D

[bay_alexison]

Sooooo, I decided to go ahead and start with the sixth chapter of my Big Bang earlier than expected. 800 words, yay! It might be a while until my beta gets back the third chapter and I really want to move on with the story, so I should have more than enough time to have the chapter be finished before November comes (which would mean I'll only need to do the last two chapters of my Big Bang for Nano, wee).

I don't think I was given any real bad writing advice except perhaps having your writing be filled with lots of lovely prose and depth. A nice writing style is awesome, but I tend to read stories for plot and characters and in-depth writing tends to be the icing on the cake for me. Guess you can say I'm all for Hemingway's simple writing style. XD

[littlebutfierce]

Yay, good luck w/the new chapter!

I dislike really ornate writing, but OTOH I think often mine swings back too much in the other direction, to being too sparse/utilitarian. ^^;;

[linaewen]

Life is too much with me these days, so I'm being prevented from more than just dabbling in a bit of editing and rereading. That is still helpful and encouraging, but I need to take control of my RL and make it submit to me so I can write!

I don't know that I've gotten any bad advice. There has been advice that is good but doesn't seem to work for me (or hasn't yet!) -- like writing every day, or writing whatever comes to me just to get started.

[littlebutfierce]

Awww, good luck in wrestling RL into submission!!

I like your framing of bad advice as advice that just doesn't work for you (yet)!