You know, I see that in some ways writing advice can be rude on this platform, divisive, even. But, here's the thing: a lot of the advice I see isn't meant to be advice at all. I'll tell you why #writingcommunity 1/9

So, I was editing, and as you all know I'm huge on no "ly" verbs in dialogue. Nope, that's not advice, it's just me stating my taste. The point is I was doing an "ly" search and was surprised at the girth of them in my manuscript, because it read just fine, IMO (more) 2/9

The "ly" words were things like "probably" and "seemingly" and "mostly" and "awkwardly". I don't mind these "ly" words at all, usually. They were in the first person casual narrative, so no biggie. But I started to take some out, just to make sure my sentences varied (more) 3/9

After I removed them, my character became more firm. Her assertions were more pointed, she stood differently in scenes. Characters had to react to her differently, and to be clear, my sentences became more, um, me (more) 4/9

So, I tweeted out that removing "ly" words made my narrative stronger. This was not writing advice to the #writingcommunity as much as me shouting an epiphany about my personal growth. Part of my process had been affirmed, so I was saying "I grew, I grew, I grew!" (more) 5/9

But many, many, many on this here twitters were like, "there aren't any rules, stop saying there are!" And I'm like, what rule are you talking about? I learned something about myself is all. (more) 6/9

What I realized is that many folks feel pressure from concrete statements, because it feels like a demand, I suppose, and it doesn't matter what the statement is, and it's like this in real life as well (more) 7/9

Example, if I learned dialogue is better in shorter sentences, someone will undoubtedly yell there are "no rules!" In the real world, I told a friend that I love him and that he didn't need to get better. Yeah, he was offended. He was like, don't tell me what to do (more) 8/9

Again, what I told him was an epiphany in a firm statement. No wonder there are tons of questions to answer lately, on twitter. Opening the app is like opening an SNL survey. Nobody wants to make a statement because it'll be construed as unsolicited advice. My observation 9/9