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7 Bad Writing Tips That Can Kill Your Creativity

  • September 18 2014
  • Comments Off on 7 Bad Writing Tips That Can Kill Your Creativity
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Whether you’re pursuing a career as a fiction or non-fiction writer, having creativity is a must. Writers who are just starting out are frequently searching for guidance from those who’ve made it, but not all tips found can be considered “good advice”. So how do you separate the bad writing tips from the good? For starters, if it kills your creativity, then it’s a piece of advice that you should ignore. Below, you will find a list of the seven worst writing tips that can obliterate your artistic side.

 

When in Doubt, Cut it Out

If you attended college, your professor may have advised this to you, and that’s because a lot of new writers are over-the-top with details and words. Likely, you’ve read content that felt a bit overbearing when it came down to describing emotions or events. Although it seems noticeable to you, it isn’t always noticeable to the writer. At first thought, this advice seems like a good way to clean up your content, but when it’s done too often, you could end up chopping out too much, leaving your story empty and vague. Worrying too much about how much you say could slowly hack away at your creativity. Having a balance and a great editor can help you overcome this. Then over time, you should be able to recognize this on your own.

 

Stick to Writing What You Know About

This too seems like great advice, especially for writers who are just starting out. There’s lots of new content you can write at the beginning, but after writing numerous articles or stories revolving around the same topics, things can get pretty redundant. In order to keep your creativity alive, it’s always good to venture into new domains. Learn new things and apply your newfound knowledge to your writing. Taking your content to different levels could bring your creativity to heights never witnessed before.

 

Work On One Writing Project at a Time

Keeping organized and remaining focused are two tasks that aren’t always easy for writers. That’s likely why this piece of advice seems like a good one at first. But when you look a little closer, you’ll see that this is just another one of the many bad writing tips that are out there. When it comes to your creativity, boxing yourself in with only one outlet to express yourself can quickly inhibit any inspirations that come along. Many writers have successfully worked on multiple projects at a time. Of course, if you have a major project with a strict deadline, you should focus most of your attention on that, but this doesn’t mean you can’t explore other projects during your off-time.

 

You Have to Join a Writer’s Group

Writing groups have their advantages, especially when you choose one that has amazing writers, but the chances of that happening is quite rare. Being in a writing group is supposed to stimulate your creative juices and hone your writing and editing skills, but sometimes it does the complete opposite. If anyone tells you that joining a writing group is a step every writer must take, then they’ve just given you another bad writing tip. Some writing groups can kill your writing, taking out your own essence and pushing in their own. Having too many opinions can quickly bog you down and even discourage you from your work. This is why being in solitude with your content is sometimes what’s needed to give you a completed piece of work that you’re satisfied with.

 

It’s About Quantity, Not Quality

When writing for the World Wide Web, it’s easy to fall into the notion that producing more content is more important than quality. This holds true for some paying clients, and when you’re writing just to pay the bills, it can become a reality for you as well. Having projects that require you to write lots of content in a short period of time puts a large boulder over your well of creativity. Rather than spending time thinking, all of your time is spent writing.

 

All You Need is One Book to Launch Your Career

This is a fairytale ending that we only see in movies on the big screen. Wishful thinking isn’t something writers can afford to have. As a starving artist, you should never place all of your eggs into one basket. In reality, the chance of your first and only book getting published isn’t very likely. With that said, after completing one piece of work, you should begin working on another. Doing so will keep your creativity boosted and increase your chances of getting work published.

 

Writing Short Stories is a Waste of Time

In the past, this may have been true, but today, thanks to eBooks, short stories are back in business. Writing short fiction can be an excellent ways to make money while touching up on your craft. Because these stories are short, you’re able to write a multitude of them each year, keeping you on your toes. And you’ll get an ego boost after publishing multiple short stories. It will also look good on your resume.

 

Finding the right advice to jumpstart your writing career is always a good idea for newbies. But be wary of bad writing tips that you may come across. Always use multiple sources and try to find pointers from established writers.

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Cameron Mackey

Cameron is the Content Manager for the Vorongo Blog. He has spent three years in various content marketing roles. When he is not working with Vorongo he enjoys photography and hiking.

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