Typical Writing Advice You Are Allowed To Ignore

As my bio explains, I am a storyteller not a formulaic writer. I don’t create some construct following industry-prescribed structures and fill in the empty spaces with content. My chapters aren’t perfectly sized to fit some mold, my scene breaks will probably upset the uber-literary.

This deviation from the “norm” extends through every facet of my work. The characters, conversations, descriptive text, all of it. Why? Because I care more about the story than I do the craft. I write what feels right; what flows best as I tell my tale. Scene breaks are used to provide breathers for my audience, or shift point of view. Chapters are used to provide an overall tone for a collection of scenes, as they pertain to the main “thread”.

I will never be the author that can tell you exactly how long my chapters are, especially in advance. I’m okay with this. I don’t write by chapters, I simply don’t think that way. When I attempted to write that way back in 2010, I failed miserably. I got so lost in the details and specifics that I forgot to focus on the story. Nothing flowed right, and it just pissed me off. So, I stopped. I walked away for another three years.

Similar attempts were made in 2013 and 2018 to return to writing, and both failed just the same. It wasn’t until I decided to ignore industry advice that I succeeded in finishing my novel. All of this is to show why I don’t really care about how I’m supposed to be doing what I do. None of those “right ways” actually work for me.

I don’t care about tropes, or trends. My story was developed in my head during the mid-late 1990’s. It has expanded since, just as my worldbuilding. However, the roots of my story, and my characters, are decades old.

How long should your chapters be?

Standardized/Typical answers:

• “They should never be longer than 4,000 words!”
• “Exactly 10 pages!”

My answer:

• However long it takes the overall tone/story of that chapter to unfold.

Write what feels natural, not what someone else tells you that you have to conform to.

How long should my book be?

Standardized/Typical answers:

• “70k words max!”
• "50k-70k words!”
• “20 chapters!”

My answer:

• However long it takes to tell your tale.

Seriously, why is so much of the industry hell-bent on making your book fit into a tight little box? Sure, if you’re pitching to agents and trying to land a traditional publishing deal you might have an upper limit on your book’s length. But to say your book must be 70,000 words or “20 chapters” is just utter nonsense.

Insert typical counter-argument: If you can’t tell your story in 70k words or less, you’re a bad writer.

Yes, I’ve seen people say that. Yes, I believe they are wrong. I had three people suggest to me that I needed to split my book into parts. I actually asked several beta readers if they agreed. After reading my book, they didn’t want less, they wanted more. My novel is 224k words long. Way, way beyond 70k. Beyond most trad-pub upper limits of 120k on epic fantasy.

You Should Avoid X Trope / Be Sure To Use Y Trope!

Pardon my ‘french’ but, fuck that. I have watched writers specifically craft an entire novel using tropes as a way to create their entire story. It shows in their final product. It’s usually pretty terrible, actually. The resulting tale from that style of crafting is typically disjointed and very cringe-worthy. Maybe some authors can pull it off, but I’ll be honest… I haven’t found one yet.

On the same token, I don’t think you should ever go out of your way to change your story to avoid a trope either. If you have a story in your head, tell it. If it glances against a common trope, ignore that fact and focus on your story itself. There’s no need to change scenes or chapters to avoid a trope, or to suddenly go “ooo, that’s a trope, I should enhance this area to maximize usage of the trope!”

I was told by two beta readers that certain concepts within my novel, effectively, gently kiss and deftly skirt several tropes. I’ll be honest, I hate the word trope, and am blissfully unaware of most of them. I don’t concern myself with them. I don’t even know when I’ve written one. I didn’t even know what the “hero’s journey” was until I was done writing book 1 and started doing research on publishing.

Summary: Stay True to Your Story

Focus on the story that lives inside you. Feed it. Let it grow. Think as your characters, and live through the story in their heads. Let them guide your scenes. Go with the flow, and let your story write itself. Don’t try to brute force it into a box just to appease other authors’ random advice on social media, or blogs. Hell, don’t write your story exclusively based on my advice either. Be yourself. Develop your own voice. Write in a way that makes you comfortable.

If you need structures, heavy plotting, and defined trope usage to produce your work, fine. This advice clearly isn’t for you. However, you aren’t the kind of writer people yell at as being wrong. Those of us who don’t conform are told we’re wrong constantly. I’m here to say we’re not.

So, if you are a writer who is uncomfortable with those industry-mandated constraints, and struggles to fit your story into a perfect little box… I’m here to tell you you’re just fine as you are, and you don’t need to force yourself to change. I’m certainly happy being me, so there’s no reason you can’t be happy being you. Don’t let them tell you that you’re a failure. You’re not. At the end of the day, your story is what matters.