The Rules

 I’ve been writing for many years, but I really only started getting into the rabbit hole of professional writing advice in late 2022. There is a plethora of Youtube videos, influencer posts, and writing craft books out there, many of which give great pointers and pitfalls (personally, I’ve found Jenna Moreci and Brandon McNulty to be the most helpful authors in this space.) 

There’s also a lot of not-so-great advice being regurgitated over and over, because someone else said it a long time ago. Certain things, like the rules of grammar or story structure, are not really negotiable, of course. But today I want to go over a few writing “rules” that don’t work for me, and probably don’t work for a lot of other writers, either.

Show, Don’t Tell

Yep, I’m coming out of the gate hot and controversial, I know. Hey, did you know that the phrase “Show, Don’t Tell” was originally coined to apply to screenwriting and NOT books? It’s true. That’s because there’s a place to show and a place to tell in fiction writing – it’s not a game of “show everything and never outright tell the reader a single fact.”

In my opinion, the distinction is informational versus emotional when it comes to showing or telling something to the reader. If you’re trying to convey an emotion, don’t tell the reader about it. I would not have Chloe yell “I missed the bus, I’m so mad!” I would have her grumble and kick a rock down the sidewalk to show that she’s upset at missing the bus. I want my reader to empathize and be upset along with Chloe, not be handheld into how to feel at any given moment. On the other hand, if I need to relay a quick fact to the reader, telling is fine. Sure, I could have HWE go through some convoluted scene in which he looks at old pictures to indicate that he used to be a boxer, or I could just have him say “I learned this fighting technique back in my boxing days.” The simple, direct method conveys the information more easily. Don’t be afraid to tell something if you’re just trying to get basic information across.

“Said” Is Dead/Only Use “Said”

I think this one is starting to fade away, fortunately, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen other authors online posting lists of verbs you can use besides “said”, since “said” is boring. Conversely, I’ve also seen it advised to never use anything except “said” as a dialogue tag.

Rigid rules like this are unnecessary. I love using “said” as a dialogue tag – the brain doesn’t register it, so readers just skip right on over the word and it feels more natural to read dialogue this way. But there are certain situations where I may want to be a little more descriptive than just a plain old “said”. Sometimes characters shout, sometimes they ask, once in a while they mumble or whisper. These are all fine options when used sparingly. They’re a hell of a lot better than whipping out your thesaurus and getting something like this:

“What are we going to do now?” I stammer.

“Shut up,” Chloe explains.

“But I’m scared!” I ejaculate.

Just use “said” in most cases, or don’t include dialogue tags at all. “Said” usually only gets annoying if you’re giving every single line of dialogue a tag. Whatever you do, don’t ejaculate.

Every Villain Is The Hero Of Their Own Story

This is a dubious piece of advice that probably came from a good piece of advice. To be sure, it’s important for a good villain to have a solid motivation outside of just, “I’m evil because being evil is what I do!” But. That motivation is not always to do good. 

A villain absolutely does not need to see themselves as a hero. I also think this new “rule” goes hand in hand with a lot of villains getting redemption arcs or sympathetic backstories. It’s easier to accomplish if they have some kind of noble but twisted motivation, seeing themselves as a hero/heroine who is progressing toward a good goal, even if a lot of people have to get hurt along the way. But in both fiction and in real life, there are plenty of villains motivated by purely bad things – greed, lust, need for power, etc. – they know they’re evil and they don’t care. It doesn’t matter to them if they help anyone as long as they get theirs. Some men, and women, just want to watch the world burn (but they should have a good reason for why they got that way.)

Any craptastic pieces of writing advice I missed? Let me know!