@Ali—I just got some advice like that from people within the publishing industry. I still haven’t figured out if these people were right or just not familiar enough with the genre (my beta readers within the genre really liked this aspect of the book).

@Carol—Oh, that’s a good one! Trying to be something we’re not is a great way to kill not only our writing but our passion.

@Andrew—Your worst advice reminds me of the time I went into the guidance office at the College of Humanities to declare my second major (American Studies, in addition to Linguistics), and the guidance counselor asked me with a more-than-healthy dose of skepticism, “And what do you want to be?”

(Lady, you advise in the Humanities department. Very few of these majors lead directly to jobs.)

I told her I planned to be a writer. I may as well have told her I planned to scrape barnacles from zeppelins. She looked at me like I was the stupidest thing that had ever graced her office for two minutes between classes and handed me a pamphlet for a freshman career development course.

However, I feel compelled to wait until I have a contract to gloat .

I totally agree that the “rules” are designed to prevent excess and have been completely misapplied. (I joke that if we’re not allowed to use any adjectives, our characters will end up having “eyes, a nose and a mouth.” Vivid, I know.)

@Annette—I think the only time that we should write what we know is in writing people. A writer should understand human nature and behavior (and understand how that applies in fiction, too).

The worst feedback I ever got (not really advice) was in a contest where the judge said I must have some endurance because I’d finished an entire manuscript. Um, thanks, dude–it wasn’t my first one. It was something like my SIXTH. If that was the best they could say about it . . .

Worst writing advice? I pretty much agree with Kaye about the “rules.” The rules don’t apply to me. Not because I’m a gooder writer, but because I see that most of the “rules” are more about controlling excess vs. creating prohibitions. If adverbs and adjectives are bad, then why did we invent them? It’s like vegetarianism. If Gd didn’t want us to eat animals, then why did He make them out of meat? I’m not saying we should eat all-meat diets. But all-veggie diets are lacking something too. Writing should be balanced as well. Sprinkle in some adjectives and adverbs here and there for flavor. Partial sentences. Long run-ons that seem to go on forever but they take the reader to an interesting place.

I say just go for it, and if it sucks, someone will tell you.

What I learned was, that even though you might respect and admire another writer, what works for their genre/market may not work for your own. Each genre/market has its own standards, so do your homework before killing yoursel to change your story on the word of someone who might not, in fact, know what they’re talking about as it applies to your story.