There's Too Much Writing Advice On The Internet!

Hey, everyone.

So, in my last post for Cryptids and the Paranormal, I wrote a rant about something that bothers me about the paranormal community. And recently, I got the raw end of a business deal, so I'm feeling a little fired up this week. As a result, I've decided to rant about something that burns my ass when it comes to the world of writing, and that is...

That's right; there is too much writing advice out on the Internet. Whether you're a new writer starting out or you've been at this a while and you're looking for tips on current writing styles, there's a lot of information out there. It can especially get confusing if you think you knew everything or you had a style already worked out, and then suddenly, you start seeing tips that suggest just the opposite. So, what the hell are you supposed to do?

At first glance, the answer seems obvious: change your style to fit the recommendations. But, when professional and world renowned authors like Stephen King say that "he said, she said" is king when it comes to dialogue tags, but several pins on Pinterest have titles saying "Said is Dead," it gets quite frustrating.

Why would you use "asked" if you have
a question mark in the line?

I noticed something rather irritating about my own writing recently as well. See, I signed up to be a tutor for a local company. The first student they tried to set me up with wanted a crash course in grammar and punctuation. (I say tried, because I couldn't schedule a first meeting with her, and to my knowledge, neither have they.) Anyway, to make sure I was up to snuff on punctuation, I went looking for copies of Strunk and White's Elements of Style. Turns out you can download the whole book for free as a PDF. Anyway, as I was brushing up on the punctuation, I noticed a mistake I've been making with my commas. Apparently, I've been running my sentences on, when actually there's more than one sentence there and they need to be separated by a comma. Here's the example from Strunk and White.

I met them on a Cunard liner many years ago. Coming home from Liverpool to New York.

Strunk and White say it should look like this:

I met them on a Cunard liner many years ago, coming home from Liverpool to New York.

Looking at my last finished novel, I noticed quite a few places where I don't do that. To add to my confusion, I noticed places where I can't justify the rule; perhaps because they aren't two separate sentences. But the real chagrin came when I realized there were probably dozens or even hundreds of places where I've made this mistake in my first novel. Does this mean I have to go back and re-edit both books in their entirety even though I'm so close to self-publishing both of them?

No. While I admit I'm a perfectionist, something I realized was that no one had caught this error and called me out on. I'm sure I've made this mistake in my book Tales of Horror: Macabre Monsters of Michigan, and like I said, I've likely done this everywhere in ROCCO. But, no one on Inkitt, not even my beta reader, caught it. Does that mean that Strunk and White's comma is superfluous? Well, it could be. Strunk and White are only two "experts" of the rules of writing. Something that you must realize is that writing isn't a science. There are basic rules that everyone accepts as being the rules on how to write, but they're not immutable laws of the universe. They are subject to change as evidenced by the fact that there are multiple editions of Elements of Style, and some writers just straight up ignore them. I heard of an Indie author who doesn't use quotation marks at all. And, some of the rules for writing in Britain are completely different from those here in America. So, where does that leave me?

Well, being so close to self-publishing both books, I'm not going to go back and re-edit them. I probably will re-edit them some day, but not this day. Like I said, no one seems to have caught my blunder, so most people must either not care or don't notice. But, moving forward, I will be a little more careful. Coming back to "he said, she said" versus "Said is Dead," what does one do moving on from here?

I suggest you do what's natural for you and make up your own style as necessary. After all, unless you're an English teacher yourself, you're not likely to know all the writing rules, and there will still be times when you'll forget them or you'll be unsure of what to do yourself. So, follow the rules for the most part, but deviate when necessary. Something I've discovered while editing some pieces is that in order to obey certain rules and styles, I've had to make a sentence quite awkward. Instead of doing that, I say screw it, and just do it in the simplest way possible, even if that means adding words when you're trying to cut back, and even if that means using the abominable adverb.

Next week, I don't know what I'm going to cover, but I hope to have something a little more focused.

Keep writing, my friends.