Somewhere over Thanksgiving weekend, after gorging myself on delicious food and then being forcibly enrolled in the amazingly effective weight loss program known as the stomach flu, it dawned on me that there are a lot of blogs, YouTube channels, and other media offering writing advice, but nowhere nearly as many people offering editing, proofreading, or publishing advice.
Part of me wanted to respond to this by filling this void with a new article on such advice, and another part of me just wanted to go back to bed with a bucket to throw up into, but a third part of me said, “hang on, what if this is just the market speaking for itself?”
It’s something of a well-known fact in the art that most people who think about writing a book, or creating any new kind of story, are never actually going to publish. Some people have no desire to publish; some don’t want to share their personal thoughts with other people or put them on display for the entire world to see. Writing is a bit like streaking; it doesn’t pay very much, and you can’t do it if you’re shy.
But then there are the people who just never put their pen to paper, or fingers to the keyboard. There are the people who are just dreamers, and people who will write the first draft but can’t handle the criticism that comes with the editing process.
And then there are the people who consume writing advice content, not because they want to write their own stories, but just because they find the advice content entertaining in its own right.
On its own, this isn’t a bad thing. Learning about how authors can improve their writing can help you better understand and identify good writing from bad writing. There’s a big difference between saying “Marvel movies today are terrible,” and being able to explain why they’re terrible, and sometimes understanding why you do or don’t like a piece of media can be an important bit of self-reflection.
But there’s a downside to this as well. Sturgeon’s law (90% of everything is crap) remains undefeated, and writing advice columns, blogs, and videos are no exception. First, people who make this sort of content have biases, and because of the nature of search algorithms these days, YouTube, Google, and other search engines are going to suggest to you channels and articles that feed your own biases, rather than give you nuanced opinions.
One of the things that bothers me the most about criticisms of Ayn Rand is that most people either get upset about her books due to her political views, or they’re reviewed by fans of objectivism that call everyone who hates Atlas Shrugged a bunch of communists. Very rarely do you see someone break down the story elements of her books, and acknowledge the true problem with most of her writing: it’s boring. And that matters, because you’d think that selling consumers a product that they actually want to consume instead of yelling at them for not liking it is something that an objectivist would understand.
And of course, it’s not just the channels that have express biases you have to watch out for. Reviewers who make it clear that they lean a certain way politically and seethe at any work that doesn’t agree with their views are actually better than channels that hide their biases, but still allow them to color their advice. This is because people like this are often sneakier, even unintentionally, about poisoning the well of advice they offer.
But this is just one way advice columns can trick people. Another is from that classic syndrome of “not knowing what you’re talking about.”
On the internet, everyone has access to Google, everyone thinks they’re an expert, and most of them really aren’t.
A classic example of this, which I will probably have to elaborate on in a video in the future, is the idea that writers should just write good characters, and glue the characters’ sex, gender, race, and other identity features on later. This is complete and utter bunk. Most people are who they are because of their experiences, and a lot of those experiences are shaped by our both our outward identity, that is, our appearance, our sex, our race, etc., and by our internal identities, such as the parts of ourselves we want people to focus on, like our accomplishments, the adversities we’ve actually faced versus the adversities people assume are problems for our assigned group.
What’s funny about this concept is that the same people who claim we should just write good characters with identities attached later is that, whenever Hollywood produces an action film with a female protagonist who’s basically a male action hero but played by a woman, the people touting this “just write good characters” line will usually be the first group to complain that the female protagonist is just a man with boobs glued on.
A well-written female character has to be female, and while there are some areas where men and women would react to problems the same way, you cannot build an entire character on any kind of long-running series exclusively on scenes like that. The best characters are going to incorporate these qualities into their arcs, and often show people struggling with these problems an advice that’s a bit better-tailored to viewers who want to learn a solution to their problems.
Sure, a generic character going through a problem like struggling to get the attention of their crush might appeal to a wider audience, but it won’t inspire anyone. An arc that’s tailored to a character of a specific sex (let’s say a woman) trying to engage with the opposite sex would have be more inspiring to a female audience, and shed some light on the experiences of women in this scenario to the male side. If you throw in a particular conflict, like the girl character being plain-looking, or even unattractive, the effects become more pronounced. Add a particular temptation, like using Instagram, filters, or other things that might give her a boost over other girls, and you have a genuinely interesting story that can offer insight to other women on how not to make the same mistakes, and also show teach men a thing or two about what women’s lives can be like, along with what’s going on in the head of the Instagram girl with the overdone filters and excessive makeup.
The problem with stories like this is usually bad writing, not the concept of an identity-driven plot. Afterall, some scholars would argue that all stories at their core will feature a quest for identity.
So, by all means, indulge in your favorite writing advice channels. It’s a great way to expand your knowledge of why you enjoy the art and stories that you do. But be selective. Just as there are bad TV programs, poorly-researched documentaries, and trashy romance novels, there are also bad writing advice channels, and this is especially pernicious when it comes to content passing itself off as educational.
