What is bad writing? No one has a precise definition, but everyone recognizes it when they see it. Bad writing is boring, slow-paced, bloated, and incomprehensible. Most importantly, it doesn’t deliver on its promises.
Sometimes, bad writing is a result of inexperience or poor work ethic. But it’s also often a product of terrible writing advice from school teachers, writing class instructors, and BookTube and BookTok influencers who believe themselves professional writers or critics just because they have an audience.
Today, I want to walk you through bad advice you’ve likely encountered and explain how it makes your writing worse and kills your inspiration and motivation. But never fear; I’ll also suggest ways to overcome these misconceptions and revive your love for writing while making it better than ever.
Don’t Bother Writing
Many Redditors admit giving up on writing after hearing a variation of this bad writing advice from their teachers or advisors:
- You can’t become a writer.
- Writers are born, not made.
- You either have talent, or you don’t.
- No book, class, or practice will make you a writer.
Sounds familiar?
It’s the worst thing a professor can say to you. And the worst thing you can do is believe it.
Although there are always exceptions, few people start writing poems or prose in early childhood. Some have a stronger natural aptitude towards putting their thoughts into words, but without honing the skill and following good writing advice, it doesn’t turn into mastery on its own. Like homework improves academic achievement, writing practice improves your style. You still need to understand your audience, get constructive feedback, and develop your voice, even if you’re the next Stephen King.
Read a Lot Before You Write
Reading and writing are two very different activities. For one, reading fiction or non-fiction books without careful analysis won’t help you write better. Moreover, even if you read books on writing or explore essay samples or books in a genre you wish to write in, you might get stuck. Information overload can foster indecision and writer’s block. And reading others’ works will only make you feel insecure and may turn you off writing altogether.
So, while reading a lot is necessary to write well, it’s bad writing advice without qualifiers. If you read essay samples, analyze their strengths and weaknesses and think about how you can incorporate the most powerful points and devices into your work. It will help you generate your personalized writing advice. Set a time limit for your research because, at some point, it turns into procrastination.
Plot the Story Before Writing
You’re familiar with the classic three-part essay structure and the 8-point story arc used in storytelling. Some people swear by these outlines and use them for every piece. However, it’s terrible writing advice for others. You should definitely try the common outlining strategies but don’t be afraid to skip this step if they don’t work for you and only hamper your creativity.
Although plotting isn’t necessarily bad advice, it’s not a prerequisite for excellent writing. If you prefer to let your mind and writing wander, do not fall for the common misconceptions and do it your way. Moreover, you might discover that outlining works for some pieces but not others, so don’t be afraid to switch things up when you feel like it.
Show, Don’t Tell
This well-meaning recommendation is cited in every writing class and book on writing. And it isn’t usually bad writing advice, especially for students who dump all their exposition in a couple of lines of dialogue or prose.
What makes writing bad is overusing this advice and turning your piece into an endless overwritten slop no one can get out of. The key here is to find the right balance between painting the picture and leaving enough room for the readers to complete it with their imagination and logical conclusions.
For example, if you want to demonstrate a character is nervous, “telling” would look like this:
She was nervous to start the conversation.
An example of excessing “showing” would be more long-winded and with too many unnecessary details:
Her heart was racing, and her pulse was pounding in her temples. She rubbed her hands up and down her thighs to get rid of the clammy feeling, all while trying to take slow and measured breaths like her yoga instructor always reminded her to do. She opened and closed her mouth a few times but couldn’t squeeze a word out.
Although the passage does paint a picture, it could be much shorter while serving the same purpose of “showing”:
Sweaty palms dried on her pants, and heart pounding, she finally braved the conversation.
Let this be a reminder that any well-meaning recommendation can become terrible writing advice when used wrongly.
Boost Your Credibility with Fancy Words and Syntax
Many writing instructors tell students their writing will look more professional and be taken more seriously if they use long, complex words and unique syntax forms. But unless you’re E.E. Cummings, it’s terrible writing advice more likely to make you sound stuffy and rigid instead of smart.
There are only two ways to use this bad writing advice effectively:
- In comedy, to subvert expectations and boost hilarity
- In fiction, to emphasize the characters’ speech patterns
In all other cases, using a thesaurus to replace every other word with a more complex alternative is a bad idea. Instead, look for ways to make your writing tighter and easier to read. For example, get rid of excessive adjectives and adverbs and replace them with more powerful alternatives:
- Very beautiful — gorgeous, alluring, breathtaking, etc.
- Walk quickly — hurry, rush, zip, etc.
You can also replace phrasal verbs with synonyms to shorten your piece and boost clarity. For instance, replace figure out with learn or discover, run out with lack, etc.
Write What You Know
This one is tricky because it’s not exactly a piece of bad writing advice. When you’re in a hurry and need to finish an assignment yesterday because you’re unfamiliar with the time management tools for students, recycling one of your papers to submit in another class ensures you meet the deadline and get a passing grade. If you’re smart about it, even advanced plagiarism checkers won’t be able to tell you’ve used the same work twice.
That said, it’s terrible writing advice if you’re working on a scholarship or admission essay, your creative writing assignments, or other critical pieces. Recycling your knowledge is easy, but it’s also boring. You will inevitably fall into the old patterns, and your work will lack the energy and fire necessary to catch the readers’ attention.
Instead, use Paula Munier’s advice and write about what you love or what you’d love to learn more about. This tip works for academic assignments and fiction and nonfiction writing. For example, if you’re a sci-fi fan but know nothing about space exploration, why not learn about it and translate your newfound knowledge into a space opera?
Writing Has a Time and a Place
A common advice for writing (studying and working, too) is to set up a perfect workspace for yourself. You’re supposed to have a clear desk, turn off your phone and other distractions, have complete silence, and disconnect from the world for the duration of your writing session. And while that’s not terrible writing advice, it’s highly unrealistic and prone to breed bad writing habits.
Most of us don’t have a dedicated office space, nor can we disappear for hours at a time. That’s why I suggest you try writing anywhere and anytime you get five spare minutes. If you can’t type, try speech-to-text note-taking. Five short sessions throughout the day, and you’ll have at least a few pages to work with. Of course, they’ll need editing and proofreading, but you will save yourself much time.
By the way, some research shows that writing at unusual places and times increases creativity and productivity. For example, if you’re a night owl, try waking up an hour earlier and writing a few pages in the morning or vice versa. If you can’t usually concentrate in public, schedule a 30-minute writing session in a coffee shop or cafe. And there’s always the classic recommendation to “write drunk and edit sober” (which didn’t actually apply to Hemingway, despite the common misconception), which works wonders for college students everywhere. It’s said to lower inhibitions and make your writing sound more natural and closer to real speech patterns.
Follow the Latest Trends
Making your writing sound modern is among the recurring themes of writing subreddits. Prime examples of bad writing advice include using present tense instead of the past to make your writing more dynamic or first-person instead of third-person narration because it’s more immersive. Although these slight changes do change the perception of your narrative, and you should try it both ways to exercise your creativity, there’s no correlation between the book’s popularity and its narration style. The Harry Potter books are all in third-person and past tense, and you’d hardly call them a failure, with over 500 million copies sold worldwide.
Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide which narrative style to use, regardless of the terrible writing advice you receive. Think which style and rules suit your story best, and stick to them. The only way to go wrong is to switch between tenses and points of view randomly throughout your story.
Don’t Ask for Help
It might be the piece of terrible writing advice that turns you away from writing forever.
Writing is a solitary activity. But you don’t have to struggle alone if you need support, a second pair of eyes, or an impartial opinion. That’s why professional writers hire editors and proofreaders and why they never publish the first draft.
If you’re working on a school assignment, you can use essay writing services to help with editing to improve your structure and proofreading to eliminate grammar and syntax mistakes. Professional writing services can also help with creative writing assignments and fiction or nonfiction projects. But you’ll need to be precise with your order instructions and requirements to get the best results.
Any Writing Advice with Never/Always/Only
I’m cheating a little with this one because any number of pieces of terrible writing advice fall under this category:
- Never use adverbs or adjectives
- Only use first-person narration
- Always complete your character work before writing
What makes bad writing is blindly following rules full of absolutes. The truth is rules are meant to be broken, and even if it means picking up bad writing habits along the way, crossing the line or doing the complete opposite of what’s expected is the only way to develop your unique voice and style.
Conclusion
Does this post mean every piece of writing advice is bad writing advice? Of course not!
In this article, I merely tried to show that even the most well-known and respected recommendations can do more harm than good when misunderstood or used wrong. To avoid falling into the trap of useless writing tips, analyze them and try to understand their underpinnings before implementing them.
Don’t reject advice just because it feels awkward or is hard because stepping outside your comfort zone is key to growing as a writer. But at the same time, don’t push yourself too hard to avoid burnout, and remember to reach out for help when you feel like you’ve exhausted your options. Start by checking our EssayMarket review and consider getting their help with your projects.
