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Apropos of nothing, my personal rules for writing.
1) Write about stuff you like writing about. This is not necessarily the same as stuff you like reading about, or stuff you like thinking about someone else having written and thus existing somewhere out there. If those three states overlap, that's great, but if they don't, trying to write the latter two when it doesn't overlap with the former will cause unhappiness.
2) Know enough about how your language works on a formal level to be able to defend your perfectly reasonable vernacular word and phrasing choices from the pedants and/or copy-editors, if you intend to show your writing to other people and then see what they say in return.
3) If it's a snappy one-line bit of writing advice, it's wrong. Either it's so simplified that it's useless (because it's only true if you already know what you're doing such that you know its nuances and exceptions) or it's so broad it's useless (because many bits of writing advice come down to "write things that are good writing!!!!").
3a) This especially goes for 'advice' having to do with grammar and word choice. Anyone who swears you should avoid adverbs, passive voice, epithets, or dialogue words other than "said", without giving demonstrations of circumstances in which such things are in fact perfectly appropriate and to be used, is not giving you useful advice. Ignore 'em.
3b) Learn to smile and nod and tune out people who repeat the snappy one-liners as if they're helpful. They're trying to help! They're not helping, but they're trying, and explaining why they're not helping is unlikely to make anyone happier.
4) Finish things occasionally. You don't have to finish everything. (Unless that's your process? Then, sure, go for it.) You don't even have to finish most things. It's legit to say "This project is unsalvageable" or "I just don't like this idea as much as I thought" or "Well, that was a learning experience, and I've learned, and now I'm moving on." Time is limited, and forcing yourself to finish things at the expense of writing something else isn't necessarily a good use of your time. But you gotta finish a few things, eventually, if you want to have complete things to show off.
5) Know your own critique tolerance. There is nothing more virtuous about saying "Yes! Tear it to shreds! As viciously as possible!" or less virtuous about saying "Actually, I just want encouragement at this phase, to help me get this done." You'll probably want to be able to take serious criticism at some point, but if you need it phrased gently, by friends, while they reassure you that they like the overall idea, after you've had a year of distance from the original writing... That's okay.
6) Dragons are pretty sweet. But they're not obligatory. Still, when you're not sure how to jazz up a story? Think about it. Dragons.
7) Writing advice is not the boss of you. Other people's writing habits are not the boss of you. Inspirational sayings about writing are not the boss of you. Publication is not the boss of you. If you want to write things (and I mean stuff that is not part of your literal job, your boss may in fact be the boss of you when it comes to job-related writing), write the things you want. Write them how you want. Write them when and as much as you want. Writing to a precise schedule does not make you more virtuous. Writing without adverbs does not make you more virtuous. Writing tragedy instead of comedy does not make you more virtuous. Writing to subvert tropes does not make you more virtuous. Do what works for you.
7a) It's okay to write things and never finish them and never show them to anyone, if it makes you happy.
7b) If you want to show things to other people, it's fine to just do as much as makes you happy and put it out there and leave it.
7c) If you want people to give you something in return--whether it's positive feedback or money--you will, at certain points, have to make some compromises between happiness and practicality to make your work the sort they will respond to in that way.
7d) If you want your writing to be very good writing, there will at points be compromises you will need to make between "this is fun" and "this is what this writing needs". A lot of time making writing good is not much fun. Some people like editing! Maybe you're one of the lucky ones.
8) Writing is pretty cool, isn't it? We imagine these things, and then we try to do telepathy via words, but words we put down on paper with no body language or intonation to carry them along, and generally we can't even wait nearby to explain to the reader what we meant if they get the wrong impression. It's like trying to do a drama production via telegram. God, technology is cool. I love the whole 'writing things down' part of technology. Good job, humans! We came up with this amazing thing, and then did amazing things with it! We're pretty neat that way. Go us. Keep it up.
1) Write about stuff you like writing about. This is not necessarily the same as stuff you like reading about, or stuff you like thinking about someone else having written and thus existing somewhere out there. If those three states overlap, that's great, but if they don't, trying to write the latter two when it doesn't overlap with the former will cause unhappiness.
2) Know enough about how your language works on a formal level to be able to defend your perfectly reasonable vernacular word and phrasing choices from the pedants and/or copy-editors, if you intend to show your writing to other people and then see what they say in return.
3) If it's a snappy one-line bit of writing advice, it's wrong. Either it's so simplified that it's useless (because it's only true if you already know what you're doing such that you know its nuances and exceptions) or it's so broad it's useless (because many bits of writing advice come down to "write things that are good writing!!!!").
3a) This especially goes for 'advice' having to do with grammar and word choice. Anyone who swears you should avoid adverbs, passive voice, epithets, or dialogue words other than "said", without giving demonstrations of circumstances in which such things are in fact perfectly appropriate and to be used, is not giving you useful advice. Ignore 'em.
3b) Learn to smile and nod and tune out people who repeat the snappy one-liners as if they're helpful. They're trying to help! They're not helping, but they're trying, and explaining why they're not helping is unlikely to make anyone happier.
4) Finish things occasionally. You don't have to finish everything. (Unless that's your process? Then, sure, go for it.) You don't even have to finish most things. It's legit to say "This project is unsalvageable" or "I just don't like this idea as much as I thought" or "Well, that was a learning experience, and I've learned, and now I'm moving on." Time is limited, and forcing yourself to finish things at the expense of writing something else isn't necessarily a good use of your time. But you gotta finish a few things, eventually, if you want to have complete things to show off.
5) Know your own critique tolerance. There is nothing more virtuous about saying "Yes! Tear it to shreds! As viciously as possible!" or less virtuous about saying "Actually, I just want encouragement at this phase, to help me get this done." You'll probably want to be able to take serious criticism at some point, but if you need it phrased gently, by friends, while they reassure you that they like the overall idea, after you've had a year of distance from the original writing... That's okay.
6) Dragons are pretty sweet. But they're not obligatory. Still, when you're not sure how to jazz up a story? Think about it. Dragons.
7) Writing advice is not the boss of you. Other people's writing habits are not the boss of you. Inspirational sayings about writing are not the boss of you. Publication is not the boss of you. If you want to write things (and I mean stuff that is not part of your literal job, your boss may in fact be the boss of you when it comes to job-related writing), write the things you want. Write them how you want. Write them when and as much as you want. Writing to a precise schedule does not make you more virtuous. Writing without adverbs does not make you more virtuous. Writing tragedy instead of comedy does not make you more virtuous. Writing to subvert tropes does not make you more virtuous. Do what works for you.
7a) It's okay to write things and never finish them and never show them to anyone, if it makes you happy.
7b) If you want to show things to other people, it's fine to just do as much as makes you happy and put it out there and leave it.
7c) If you want people to give you something in return--whether it's positive feedback or money--you will, at certain points, have to make some compromises between happiness and practicality to make your work the sort they will respond to in that way.
7d) If you want your writing to be very good writing, there will at points be compromises you will need to make between "this is fun" and "this is what this writing needs". A lot of time making writing good is not much fun. Some people like editing! Maybe you're one of the lucky ones.
8) Writing is pretty cool, isn't it? We imagine these things, and then we try to do telepathy via words, but words we put down on paper with no body language or intonation to carry them along, and generally we can't even wait nearby to explain to the reader what we meant if they get the wrong impression. It's like trying to do a drama production via telegram. God, technology is cool. I love the whole 'writing things down' part of technology. Good job, humans! We came up with this amazing thing, and then did amazing things with it! We're pretty neat that way. Go us. Keep it up.