Specific Advice

Hey, it's been a while since I last posted. I sometimes question the usefulness of blogging. Since I'm blogging to such a small audience it might be more useful to write a journal, or write to a message board. I'm not too worried about it though. I'm not looking to really grow this audience, rather a good place to post my thoughts.

Speaking of thoughts, I'm on a mailing list from a fairly famous author. This author gives plenty of good advice. It is fantasy author Dave Wolverton, or David Farland depending on which of his book you read. He's the author of the Runelord series, which I have not yet read.

What I have read of his has been great though.

As an author giving advice he's got some good stuff. But some of his advice will rub me the wrong way. Not necessarily because it is bad advice, but because it's a specific bit of advice applied too generally.

For example, Dave Wolverton judges a pretty big contest called Writers Of The Future. I can tell that he's been reading a lot of entries recently because his mailing has turned a critical eye on some of his pet peeves.

One of the recent mailings said this,

"For example in this past week I rejected perhaps fifty entries to a major writing contest for using five simple words: “Now, back to the story.” Have you ever done that? It’s a grave mistake."

It's a grave mistake....that sounds like some very specific advice...for those pieces. His general idea is good, but we should be careful when applying something like that too broadly. This is a sign of immaturity. We see something that bothers us in certain pieces and then we say that it's wrong or poorly written.


It's natural, as we learn the craft of writing, to judge what we think is good and bad. But let's be wary of applying our newly learned tricks too broadly. Not every adverb weakens your story. Not every fight scene needs to be written without dialogue. And your characters can look in mirrors and even describe themselves while doing so. Flashbacks are not always a sign of weak plotting.


These are all pieces of advice that I have heard. And they all have their place. But let's not become too finicky. Nearly every rule in writing can be broken in the right situation. And just because a piece of advice works in one situation doesn't mean that it applies to every other situation.


Just be careful. Listen to feedback, but stand up for your story. And maybe, just maybe, you might even write "Now, back tot he story." and you'll be right.