Hush, sign. There is no wrong way.  (Photo credit: Jack Zalium)

Writing advice comes in all types because so do writers. We all write very differently both in style and in process so it makes sense that writing advice doesn’t just come in one flavor. Let’s face it, there is never going to be that one single thing that works for everyone.

The best writing advice is the kind where the author explains what works for her and offers ways the reader could make it work for them. You walk away from an article like that either with ideas about how to apply what you read to your writing or  knowing that what worked for that author wouldn’t exactly work for you in the same way. Even if you put it down and think, “Interesting, but I’m not sure if that would work for me” you still had a positive experience reading it and likely learned something, even if it’s a way not to do it. That’s because the best stuff deals in general principles and not absolutes.

Then there’s the other kind of writing advice that is all too common. You’ll recognize it almost immediately. It goes kind of like this: You must write THIS WAY. If you write any other way, you’re WRONG and your writing SUCKS. That other way you’re writing is the way hacks write and everything you write is derivative and awful so do it my way or you may as well quit now.

It makes the claim that there is a single right way to write and anyone who isn’t doing it that way is wrong. If you write exactly how the advice dictates, you feel like Hot Stuff and you’re going to think it’s great advice and share the heck out of it. Which is how this stuff goes viral, my friend. It’s the proverbial echo chamber agreeing with itself because every share validates their opinion.

But if you don’t write that way? Unlike with the first type of advice, you either finish reading the article and feel like complete slime, convinced you’re doing it wrong and want to quit, or you immediately try to change how you write and force it it into the mold the advice painted as the correct way.  That is, until you read the next article that says, no wait, THIS is the only right way to do it…

Let me help you get out of this cycle right now. There is no right way to write. There is no wrong way. Whatever works for you is the only right way for your writing and your craft will never ever get better if you try to force yourself to adhere to someone else’s process. Period.

Here’s the thing about any and all writing advice: All it is and will ever be is just one person telling you what worked FOR THEM. Just because something worked in their writing doesn’t mean it would ever work in yours. You have your own style, your own method, your own way of thinking and viewing the world and no two of us on this earth are alike enough for there ever to be a single right and wrong way to do something. Especially something as free as writing.

That’s not to say you won’t someday come across an article full of absolutes that you’ll find helpful or that you may eventually discover how to adapt that advice into something that works for your brain, because you will. But the important part is to never let the advice you read make you feel like giving up or let it change you and your process into this forced model of what you think you should be doing. You’ll always do your best work when doing what comes naturally. No one else in the whole world has your brain so you’re the one who knows best how to make it work.

Writing advice should be helpful, not make you feel like crap. That’s the only absolute you really need.