Bad Advice for Writers

I’ve expressed my opinion on this topic many times—30 posts specifically on writing advice—many comments on the side…

Back in July of 2012, I wrote the post, Rules for Writers Are Slippery and Shifty . . ., which has a link to 72 quotes from writers about writing.

I picked 14 of my favorites and included them in the post—here’s my top fav:

“Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.”
—Virginia Woolf

So, keeping that in mind, I’ll share a few selections from an article on FlavorWire called, Bad Writing Advice From Famous Authors:

{some may seem obviously bad to you, some may not…}

“You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.”
— Saul Bellow

“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”
— Oscar Wilde

“Write drunk; edit sober.”
— Ernest Hemingway

“You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order.”
— Robert A. Heinlein

“Never use a long word where a short one will do.”
– George Orwell

So which ones seem like bad advice to you?

Which don’t seem so bad?

Any of them seem like good advice?

By the way, there are quite a few more at the link, along with Emily Temple‘s opinions about why they’re bad advice…

Please, don’t hold back, let us know your favorite piece of bad writing advice in the Comments :-)
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