5 Bad Creative Writing Tips That Can Sink Your Project

I've recently been making a real effort to finish a novel by the end of this year (though at this point, and with how much I draw out my scene, that seems a bit over ambitious). I've switching my methods of accomplishing this task a few times (making a word count goal for each day, trying a writing challenge, making a specific time commitment that needs to be completed by the end of the day) but I've found that some of the things that had been making me doubt myself or have set me up for several days of writer's block was well-meant advice that just doesn't work. I'm not saying that the methods I'm about to mention NEVER work, just that they didn't work FOR ME. So here are five writing tips (either told to me or found on the interwebs) that have completely thrown my off my writing game.

1. You're either a Plotter or a Pantser
   
   I know this isn't advice per say but bare with me. I generally hate labels since they're really restrictive but as a writer, hearing this idea "you're either a plotter or a pantser" has made me feel like if I wasn't subscribing to one over the other, I wasn't doing it right. But first, what's the difference between a plotter and a pantser?
   
   A plotter is someone who plans the bulk of their writing before even beginning their first draft. They have a list of scenes for their general plot outline, character descriptions, and a lot of world building or theme related information already figured out before they put pen to paper or start typing their first few words.
   
   A pantser, on the other hand, is someone who "writes by the seats of their pants". This means no planning whatsoever. You write where ever the narrative takes you.
   
   One method isn't any better than the other and picking a method is completely up to personal preference. But a lot of people are really serious about where they fall on this spectrum of planning or not planning and I feel this can be really damaging to new writers. Newbie writers may feel like not falling into either one of these camps may mean they're "doing it wrong" when that's just not the case. I personally use a combination of the two. I don't plan the entire story arch and in fact, only go as far as to write bullet points of whatever scene I'm working on at the moment to help me see where the scene could go. If the scene goes in a different direction than I'd planned, I'm not overly bothered because the rest my story line hasn't been completely derailed by these changes. I keep ideas for the future scenes in a notebook and have a system for how to incorporate them into the larger unplanned story arch. I think this system gives writers a lot more freedom in their writing and if either of them don't work well for you, create your own hybrid system.
   
   
2. You have to write scenes chronologically.
   
   I used to think this one too. How can I write scenes out of order? The thing is, sometimes you get stuck in your writing. Maybe a scene isn't working out the way you wanted it to or you don't know what comes directly after the scene you're working on now. This can be a huge road block. Scenarios like this have held up my writing for days but if you just outline a later scene or even start drafting it, you're still writing, you're still furthering your story line and it might just help your creative juices get flowing enough to help you figure out what scenes you'd need to get from your last scene to the one you're working on how.
   
   I think this is especially important for starting a writing project. If you're having a hard time writing the beginning of your story, start somewhere else. I was having a very difficult time starting my story but had the inciting incident so solidly and with such detail that the scene played out like a movie in my mind. So instead of being frustrated with the beginning of the story and feeling like I had to edit and edit and scrap and edit some more before I had anything I could work with, I decided to leave the beginning for later and start writing the inciting incident. And honestly, that method has been working really well. Because I had a clearer picture of where I where the scene was going and what might happen afterward, I've been able to keep the narrative going without much problem. I'll go back and add the "beginning" in later during my next draft.
   
   This method is also really helpful for scenes that get excessively long and that fizzle out while you're writing. I know me. I know how likely I am to abandon a writing project when I'm frustrated that I'm still stuck in a scene (especially one that already has a clear beginning, middle, and end but is taking me forever to get through). Instead, I write down what should come next to finish the scene without actually writing out the full scene (with dialogue, and such) and just move on to the next piece of the story. Again, it can be filled out during editing or when I start my next draft.
   
   
3. I should stop writing/ start over if my first draft feels awful.
   
   Please don't. It's unrealistic to expect your first draft to be filled with "great writing". This is not to say that your first draft will be garbage, but it won't be a work of art either.  There will be too much exposition, awkward dialogue, and a lot of stuff you're probably going to have to cut later. you just have to go with it. As Christina Dodd says:
   
   "You can always fix crap. You can't fix a blank page. "
   
   And she is one hundred percent right. It's better to have content to work with than letting yourself worry about how your draft MIGHT turn out. Putting off writing because of how bad you feel your writing is or deleting everything can be a way to procrastinate with your project. I'm not saying to never delete anything but you might want to make sure that you're not deleting a bulk of what you've accomplished in a day. Instead, make notes on what you'll change later and use that when you're writing your future scenes.
   
   Even if your project doesn't turn out great the first time around at least there's a next step for you to take in fixing it and just the writing process alone will teach you more about the project and the characters you're creating. It'll might be in the next draft that you'll flesh them out so don't stress about how awful it is, just keep going and trust that you'll be able to fix any problems in your next draft.
   
   
4. You should compare your works with that of other's
   
   Sigh. I think when people talk about this, it's explain the basic story or theme with something people can relate to when they ask you about your writing project. "Oh, my story is a mix between Harry Potter and Vampire Diaries". However, starting to compare your work with published authors may not be a good idea. Comparing your draft with a published piece of work may discourage you. Keep in mind that your draft is unfinished, hasn't been edited by an editor, and is still in it's beginning stages. Many of published authors have been writing for years and are on a different level in their author/ writing journey than you are. You'll get there too.
   
   More than that though, don't compare yourself with other writers at all (even those who are on a similar level than you). As someone who watches a lot of Youtube, I follow a few author-tube channels and have found myself comparing myself and my writing to others (especially during things like NaNoWriMo). I watch as these self-published and aspiring writers bad out 1800 words in a half hour. I can't do that. In fact, I write about that much in an hour and a half. And for a while, I felt really discouraged about things like this but when it comes to writing, I've learned its's really just about running your own race. When horses race, they are given blinders so that they don't focus on all the other horses on the track. They just focus on themselves and run their own race to the best of their ability. You have to do the same with your own writing. Focus on your project and your progress. And if anything, use other people's success as motivation for reaching your own success - think "if she can do it, so can I"!
   
   
5. Don't borrow from other works
   
   Nothing in the world is truly original. People borrow from other works all the time to find inspiration for their own projects. The key to borrowing is to take something you really enjoy and spin it! You like stories about boarding school? What can you tweak to give a fresh take on something that's already been written about? Make sure that when you are borrowing from other people's material, you're doing so in a way that is respectful and isn't plagiarizing. If you're copying directly from a text, that's plagiarism and extremely illegal. But don't let people make you think that you can't write a story about something someone's already written about. The Hunger Games was about dueling to the death to win a competition (obviously there's more to it than that but we're talking bare bones for right now). Now let's think of another book that has a similar bare bones premise - Throne of Glass and Crown's Game are just a few Y.A titles that fit this description.
   
   The point is they are similar but not the same. The authors could have drawn inspiration from each other but obviously the differences in the works are vast enough that you don't think of them as being the same. Find something that draws your interest, borrow from that work, create your own twists and change the type of characters you - you'll end up with something totally different than what inspired you in the first place.

I hope bringing some of these tips to light may have helped writers from getting discouraged or feeling like they're doing something wrong. Reading or looking up writing advice online or in books isn't necessarily a bad thing but you need to evaluate what does and doesn't work for you. Writing like most things is a process and something that works for one person may not work for you and vice versa.

Good luck to any writers doing Preptober! I wish you guys all the luck in the world in preparing for NaNoWriMo!!