: Re: Why do expert fiction writers often give conflicting and contradictory advice to novice writers? Lots of writers give writing advice -- but why do they so often contradict each other? For example,

@Annie587

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This is true not just of writing but of any but the simplest of tasks a person might do. I'm a software developer by profession, and I've read lots of conflicting advice about how to write software over the years. I've read conflicting opinions about everything from what sort of trade policy the government should enforce to how often to change the oil in your car.

I read a statement by an old farmer once who said that in the old days, a farmer just planted seed in the ground and prayed for rain, but today he must carefully study advice from government agencies and university agronomy experts and corporate research departments, carefully evaluate all of them, and choose that for his own use which will do him the least harm.

How do you decide what to make of conflicting advice? Consider it logically. Does it make sense to you? Does it apply to your situation? Try it out. There's an old saying among scientists: An ounce of experiment is worth a pound of theory. Does it work when you try it? For something like writing, what works for someone else may not work for you. You may have different skills, different style, etc.

Just for example, some writers work well with an outline: first put together a basic structure, what comes first, what comes second, etc. The fill in text to expand the outline. Others work better if they throw a lot of text at the paper, get all their ideas out, and then try to clean it up and organize it. I don't think it would be accurate to say that one method is "right" and the other is "wrong", or that one is better or worse than the other. They're just different styles. See what works for you.

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