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Hellooo everybody! A while back, I listed the 10 best pieces of writing advice I've
ever received, and today we're flipping the script! We're talking about the worst writing
advice out there, and why you should avoid it like the plague. There's a lot of shitty writing advice
out there, but I'm going to cover the things that pop up most often. Additionally, I'll
be talking about writing advice that encapsulates the craft of writing as well as the business end.
Before we get started, a huge thank you to my friends over at Skillshare! They love my rants,
and I gotta say, I can't blame ‘em! Skillshare is an online learning platform for creators featuring
thousands of classes in creative writing, business, marketing, graphic design, and
a bazillion other topics! I've been a student of Skillshare for years. That's how I learned how to
build a mailing list and how to start a blog. They pretty much have a class for anything creative.
I'm also a teacher on Skillshare! I've got a class all about how to create your author platform and
another class on the step-by-step process for planning a book release. If you haven't checked
them out already, you definitely should! I personally love Skillshare because they're
super accessible and affordable. All of their classes are broken down into bite-sized chunks.
The platform is easy to use and it's crazy cheap. A yearly Premium subscription is less than $10
bucks a month. However, you can get your first two months of Skillshare Premium for free by clicking
the link below! Click the link, get thousands of classes for two months for free! It's awesome!
But first, on to the whining! Here are the ten worst pieces of writing advice I've ever heard,
and boy, do they not disappoint! Number One (1): Quit your job. “All right, Jenna, I'm ready to
become a writer! I got a book idea. I quit my job. What's next?” Moving into your parent’s basement,
that's what! You can't just quit your job when you start writing. How are you gonna pay your bills?
Do you just fart out cash? “But Jenna, you need to have confidence. You need to bet on you!” I can
bet on myself while still paying my mortgage! It takes big ol’ privilege balls to offer this advice
as a blanket statement, like it's even feasible for most of the population. “But Jenna, you're
a full-time writer!” I sure in hell didn’t start off this way! Writing was my side gig for years
before it became my full-time profession. I was a stockbroker, and then an accountant. Look, if
you're in a situation where you can quit your job and still be financially set, fantastic! But most
people gotta make their own money to live and you can't do that off an unfinished manuscript. Number
Two (2): Editors are optional. A lot of people claim it's cruel to say that a professional edit
is a mandatory part of the writing process because some people can't afford editors. I get it.
Editing is really expensive. But an unedited book is an unfinished book. Is it cruel that a baker
must own an oven, or are you totally cool with a bakery sending you home with a bowl of flour
and eggs? Is it cruel that a seamstress has to own thread, or are you fine with buying your clothing
in pieces? This is part of creating a product. Sometimes you have to invest in resources like
buying supplies or hiring professionals. If you're not comfortable with this aspect of the business,
then be a hobbyist. There are plenty of platforms that allow writers to share their work for free.
But you can't expect people to pay for an unfinished product. That's unprofessional
and shady. Number Three (3): Hard work is toxic. “What's with this mentality of ‘you have to work
hard to achieve your goals?’ That's offensive! I should be able to achieve my goals however
I want to. My mom said I'm special!” People can be entitled. When you're used to being babied,
the concept of hard work feels like an affront. Here's the deal: you don't have to work hard if
you don't want to. No one's putting a gun to your head. But facts are facts! If you are entering a
highly competitive industry where tons of people enter but only a fraction succeed, then the odds
are set against you. In situations like this, you have to work really, really hard to balance the
scales, let alone tip them in your direction. Yes, self-care is important. Of course, your health
matters, but this is not an industry where skating by is rewarded. If you don't like hard work, get
a different job, ‘cause you're not gonna make it here. Number Four (4): Do what the famous authors
do. Remember that kid who tried really hard to fit in with the popular girls and everyone laughed at
her for it? That's you, buddy! Emulating famous authors will not make you successful. It just
makes you look like every other amateur who's new to the scene. “I'm writing my book THIS
way. It worked for Stephen King!” Yes, but are YOU Stephen King? Where are your accolades and decades
of experience? I'm not saying you can't try out his method, but go into it knowing that you are
not him and thus, it might not work for you. The writing process varies from person to person. No
one's advice is a 100% foolproof. My advice is not 100% foolproof. The greats are not gods; they are
talented people who found a system that worked for them. Number Five (5): “Buy this course and become
a best-seller today!” Sounds like a pyramid scheme pitch, don’t it? It's great to pursue education,
but any platform that's guaranteeing success is probably full of shit. Additionally, you gotta
examine the source. Are THEY successful? Is their writing any good? Some people will spend thousands
of dollars on courses taught by hacks. Meanwhile, you can take classes taught by best-selling
authors that are super affordable or free! I encourage you to expand your knowledge, but do so
with a healthy dose of skepticism. There are lots of people out there trying to make a quick buck
off of suckers. Number Six (6): Fanfic will grow your audience. Let me start off by saying I am NOT
hating on fanfic, okay? However, write it ‘cause you enjoy it, not as a marketing tactic, ‘cause
it probably won't work. “But Jenna, lots of fanfic writers have big audiences!” Yeah, lots of people
read fanfic because they're FANS of the FIC. They're not there for the writer; they're there
to indulge in whatever piece they're expanding upon. That means the minute you transition from
fanfic to original, at least two-thirds of your audience ain't coming with ya. They're
moving on to more Dramoine fic! Sure, there are exceptions to the rule, but for every E. L. James,
there are a thousand fanfic writers who tried this method and failed. Number Seven (7): “You have to
write every single day, or else the pretension police will come for you!” I'm gonna let you in
on a little secret: I'm a full time author, I make a good living doing this, and I don't write every
day! Don't get it twisted, I do SOMETHING for my career every day. Sometimes it's marketing.
Sometimes it's accounting. Sometimes it's making these videos. But I do not have time to write
every single day and I probably never will. Some people are perfectly capable of writing every day,
which is lovely, but it does not make them any more of a real writer than someone else.
Number Eight (8): “Traditional publishing is the only way to go. If you want to see your books in
stores or be remotely successful, you HAVE to go traditional.” That's some bullshit! Don't
get me wrong, traditional publishing is a valid option. It's just not the ONLY option, and anyone
who spouts this rhetoric has probably been living in a cave since the 90s. “What year is it?” Indie
publishing has produced tons of bestsellers. There are countless Indie authors making six-figure
incomes, and I hate to break it to you, but Indie books have been in bookstores for a while now.
Again, this is NOT a dig at traditional, nor am I saying that Indie is the right choice for all
authors. I'm just saying that times have changed and there's no longer one single path available
to writers. Number Nine (9): “Don't recruit beta readers or critique partners; they'll steal your
work!” I mean, obviously, your rough draft is so perfect and not at all a dumpster fire. Here's
the deal: the reason we enlist betas and CPs is because your work sucks and needs help. No one
wants to steal your garbage! I'm not saying it never happens, but even if they do steal your
work, what exactly can they do with it? You really expect them to steal your manuscript,
spend years building and growing a platform, hire an editor, query agents, land a publishing deal,
get a six-figure contract, and then release to the masses with expert marketing? If they're too
lazy to come up with their own story, how do you expect them to do any of that? The odds are even
if someone yoinks your idea, they're not gonna do anything substantial with it. You're probably
worrying about a worst case scenario that'll never come to fruition. And Number Ten (10):
Write what sells. I'm not saying this is a bad idea; there’s an entire marketing concept that
revolves around writing what sells. I'm just saying that ‘write what sells’ as a blanket,
one-size-fits-all statement is stupid. First off, most people spend years writing a novel, so what
sells when you started probably won't be the same thing as when you finish. Congratulations! You
spent five years creating old news. Second, most writing trailblazers earned their name by paving
their own way outside of the mainstream. Third, writing is not only a difficult job, it's also
a crapshoot. You could work your ass off and not even sell 20 copies. Why would you waste so much
time writing something you don't care about when there is a very real possibility that you could
fail? Might as well write what you want to read regardless of whether or not it's ‘what sells.’
So that's all I got for you today! Thank you so much to Skillshare for always having my back! They
make it SO much easier for me to release regular content for you guys. Don't forget you can get two
months of Skillshare Premium for free by clicking the link below! Check it out! You can take tons
of classes. You can take classes taught by me. You can take classes taught by New York Times
bestselling authors like Sabaa Tahir. Whatever! Have fun with it! Don't forget to subscribe to my
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