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Why Their “Great Writing Advice” Doesn’t Work for You

Learn to trust yourself and your own thinking

2 min readMay 8, 2025
A bold graphic design with the words “You Are You.” The words tumble around part of a square (right angle) framed in orange.
Photo by stefan moertl on Unsplash

There are too many rules about writing, and unfortunately, everyone insists their methods will work for you. Here are 8 “set in stone rules” that you may have to ignore because your mind doesn’t function within these parameters.

You Do You!

Day vs night —
🌞Get up at 5 am to write every morning.
🌚Write at night when it’s quiet.

Planner vs pantser —
📝Detailed outlines are helpful when writing a long post or novel
👖Type the first thing that comes to mind and then improvise until done.

Dialog tag vs descriptions —
🏷️Always say, “she/he said” after a quote to make it easy to know who is talking.
📢Instead of “he/she said,” describe an action like “she frowned.”

Indy vs trad publishing —
🏃‍♂️‍➡️Self-publishing is the way to go these days! Get your work seen quickly.
🐢Slow and steady wins the race — take the time to find a literary agent or small press — you will have more reach and street cred with “official backing.”

See what I mean? It’s all so confusing.

YOU ARE YOU, so YOU DO YOU

🌞Get up at 6:30 am to write every morning.

📝 Wrote a detailed outline

📢+ 🏷️I usually describe an action like, “she frowned,” and I also use occasional tag lines “she/he/they” after a quote.

Click to read about my upcoming book, MISSION FINITY

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