I didn’t get as big a response as I thought I would to How Do You Define Your Best Writing?
Can’t say if it was because it wasn’t read, had a weak call to action or if there was some other reason.
What I do know is that it generated some conversation and several people sent me links to material they thought would be of interest, including an email saying the infographic below contains the best writing advice anyone has ever come up with.
I like the infographic and think it is useful but I hesitate to call it the best advice ever written for writers.
Why?
Because writing isn’t like math, it is not filled with absolutes and rules that cannot be broken because they’ll lead to failure.
The Best Advice For Writers
Those of you who have spent any significant time reading or talking about writing with me have heard me talk about how the written word is filled with all sorts of biting criticism famous authors have shared about other famous authors.
Mark Twain hated Jane Austen and Faulkner and Hemingway had loving words for each other.
It doesn’t take much effort to Google the specific comments or find other writers criticizing others.
The point here is to recognize how subjectivity influences the definition of good/great/awful writing.
Does that mean you can’t identify a piece or pieces of advice as being the best because you can but I would qualify it as being the best for an individual and not collective.
But then again in an age of instant gratification, gnat like attention spans and SEO there are benefits to linkbait like headlines that promise the best anything.
Incidentally I think the advice in the infographic is awesome and highly recommend people use it, I just wouldn’t get caught up in labels.
My experience is that not having a goal is usually a big problem. It’s the same with me and blogging. Many times I just keep writing, without thinking about why I am writing.
The infographic is great. I’ve bookmarked the page, and will be coming back again and again.
I’m glad you like it.
Hi mate,
I’m not sure if I agree with the infographic. Everyone has a different approach to content creation, and not everyone wants to (or needs to) walk away from a first draft and leave it.If that works for some, great.
But there are also many others who’d rather publish “raw” because that’s what makes their content more relatable and effective.
I am always more inclined to just write than write, read, review and edit.
Too much structure tends to stifle my voice, but from a business writing perspective I lean a bit towards the other direction.
I suppose I see this infographic as having more value for people who don’t do much writing.
It’s a great starting point for technical writing, but it’s not something I’d use for writing fiction.
I can see that. Fiction is a whole different animal.