Is it at all useful to give writing advice by example?

[Feo Takahari]

I often give writing advice by mentioning and describing another work that did a similar thing, talking about how that work pulled it off and how it might be mimicked. I've noticed that when I make a post that consists primarily of an example, it's much less likely to get thanks, get quoted, or get responded to than when I make a post that straight-up says to do or not do something. Furthermore, when half my post is saying to do or not do something and the other half is giving an example, the half that's direct instructions is the half that will get quoted and responded to.

No one ever says "your advice is bad and you should feel bad," but I don't want to waste people's time. Is it unhelpful to give advice by example? Or is there something I'm doing wrong when I try to do it?

 

[Ophiucha]

Well, depends on how the example is presented.

"In __________, I feel like the author beautifully demonstrated..." only works as a point of reference if the person reading your post has also read that book. It's fine if that book is Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, but if I try to explain how to write older female characters by opening with "Well, in Paladin of Souls, the second book in Bujold's Chalion series..." then I am really limiting the number of people - even in a fantasy forum - who will really get what I'm saying. Even explaining the character or the story doesn't really do my point justice without knowing the full context of the example.

On the other hand, presenting by example: "Here's a really beautiful excerpt from ____ that demonstrates..." and including a passage from a story is quite good, and some of the more useful advice I receive.

 

[Philip Overby]

Perhaps the examples are something people aren't familiar with? (as Ophiucha said) I find people probably hone in on the part of the argument that they can respond to because they can discuss it more easily. Sometimes if the examples are too obscure, then people may not know how to respond to them.

For me, I find examples infinitely more useful than just saying "Do this because I heard that is good." If someone says, "There are lots of books that use heavy description and they've done fine" then citing those books is more helpful to me because then I can go look at them and say, "Yes, I agree it works here."

This is only my perspective when people give examples. Or if you're going to give an example that might be obscure or not well-known, maybe explain why you think that example works and why people should check it out if they're looking for something that proves your point. A little background info might help as well? I don't know. We can't really choose what people respond to I suppose, but we can try to highlight our points as much as possible to get a certain response.

Sometimes when I give examples, I try to just write something that I think illustrates it quickly. I'm not sure if that helps, but it does what Ophiucha mentioned, it gives an actual piece of text to look at. If people don't think what I wrote illustrates my point well enough, then I suppose it didn't work.

 

[Devor]

I think most of the time it's best to keep to the big three - LOTR, Harry Potter, and ASOIAF. To use another example you have to tell the story enough to make a clear point to people who haven't read it, and then you have issues with spoilers. Whatever it is, almost certainly most people haven't read it.

I remember posting something about Treasure Island that was thanked. Someone was asking about multiple first person POVs, and I mentioned how in Treasure Island, the diary gets dropped, someone else picks it up, and it works to give you this sense of dread about what happened to the first character. It also marked the author having put the book down for years with writers block, and finding a way to come back to it with a fresh energy. I think it was appreciated because I used the book to tell a story that made a clear reference point, instead of just saying "Treasure Island does it, go spend 8 hours reading it to see how."

 

[TWErvin2]

It is useful, but I believe some writers asking the questions are looking for an 'easy' and 'fast' answer, where there isn't really one.

I often suggest that the writers read and re-read authors that they've enjoyed and study how those authors tackled the problem, )be it dialogue, pacing, description, etc.), take notes, and then apply what they learned (the techniques, wording, methods) to their own writing style and current project.

That sometimes gets a thumbs-up from others that come across the post, but rarely from the individual that posted the original question.

I believe seeing how other/successful authors, in context, accomplished it.

But, like others have said, when giving advice to look at how ____________ (author) did something, if the writer is not familiar with their works, that makes it doubly unlikely to be helpful--especially if that writer is looking for a quick and easy answer.

In my opinion, Feo Takahari, you've done them a favor by describing and pointing out a relevant example. It's up to the writer with the question to follow up on the suggestion. When I need to figure something out, seeing how other authors did it is one of my primary methods of acquiring the knowledge and skill I use to tackle the concern.

 

[BWFoster78]

I started my writing journey by reading books about writing. The format of most of those books was:

Give general advice
Show example after example from books.

I gotta say that I didn't get a whole lot from those books in the form of improvement to my writing. Now that I somewhat know what I'm doing, I understand how to read analytically in order to understand what an author is doing. Back when I started, though, I simply didn't have enough of an understanding about the techical aspects of writing for the example to help me.

The funny thing is that I've always depended on example problems to learn. When I had a math or engineering problem to do, I'd read over the examples and apply what I learned to what I was trying to solve.

That doesn't seem to be as easy to do in writing.

What helped me the most was someone taking the time to look at something I wrote and pointing out all my flaws.

 

[wordwalker]

Something I've noticed a lot, among the major bloggers:

Many of their examples aren't from books, they're from the movies, or sometimes TV. The advantage there is that almost everyone knows them (and also, their streamlined plots put more focus on a given point).

Of course, referring to a whole other medium works mainly for plotting and larger-scale issues (or dialogue) and not always then. But when you can, it seems to make the point clearly.

 

[Bruce McKnight]

Everybody's different, but I find it very helpful to have supporting examples for advice. Even in the writing books I read, I find the examples to be the most helpful parts because I probably wouldn't recognize the technique otherwise.

If you are concerned that people may not be familiar with the work, I would just slap on a spoiler alert and tell them what happens.