The problem that I have with most writing advice is that it encourages people to skip the exploration step and focus directly on refinement
See, I just don't see this at all. I find that most of the writer advice is out there for people who are moving past the exploration phase and into the refinement phase. None of it, that I have ever seen, suggest skipping the exploration phase. It is almost always aimed at writers who are looking to take their writing to the next level.
Nothing matters until you answer that question, either consciously or intuitively, and with a depth that's entirely your own. And I don't mean answer it like an essay question. I mean answering it by doing it, by discovering it in your work after pouring through tens or hundreds of thousands of words and more creative concepts than you can keep track of in your head.
If you start by focusing on the rules, you're starting with limits that will hold you back.
Right. But eventually you have to move on. And that is when you start googling "how do I avoid passive voice?" and you read articles. Eventually you get to the point where you are finding that your story might need a more effective structure so you go to Amazon and order some books on plotting.
I have never, ever seen a writer offering advice saying "here is a paint by numbers way of writing stories." It is always very specific advice aimed at one type of writing issue for people who are actively searching for a solution to that writing issue.
How long are people expected to stay in the exploration phase for?
discovering it in your work after pouring through tens or hundreds of thousands of words and more creative concepts than you can keep track of in your head.
I don't agree with this. Move on when you are ready to move on. If you write only a thousand words and think "Wow, I don't know how to write dialogue." And you are motivated enough to go out and seek help on writing dialogue than DO IT. Don't just sit there writing another hundred thousand words of bad dialogue thinking "I'll learn how to do it properly, later."
How much later? When is that "later" going to happen? After you have written ten bad novels? After twenty?
I get the whole "You don't want to stunt writers who are not quite ready yet." But seriously, does that mean advice just shouldn't exist? When writers are ready they will seek out the advice they need. But that is up to them. Not anyone else. Early writers are not delicate little flowers that need to be protected from the big bad world of writing advice.
Good grief. Some of you make it sound like they are children who shouldn't have their "interest in writing stifled". Okay, I get it if we are talking about eight year olds, but we are talking about adults here. Critically thinking human beings with the capacity to seek out advice and evaluate what they find, in their own time and at their own agenda.
I entered the 100 words story challenge and didn't win because my stories were not clear and concise enough for the word limit. Fair assessment. If I wanted to write flash fiction than I would need to go out and seek some advice on how other, successful flash writers have managed to do it. I don't just sit around banging a hammer at nails with a blindfold until I hit one.
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