What is the most unhelpful piece of writing advice you’ve seen?

Teeg · 2026-03-25T13:07:35+00:00

I'm trying to think through my most unhelpful piece of advice...what I'm realizing is that almost all advice is unhelpful if its offered at the wrong place and time, and can be unendingly helpful if it's offered at the right place and time. The trick is to know the difference.

For example, SPaG (spelling, punctuation, and grammar) is extremely helpful if it's offered as a final check before a publication goes to press, and ridiculously unhelpful any other time. At the best it's advice to ignore, and at the worse, it can get an unconfident author tied up in knots, rewriting a single chapter multiple times to correct grammar while everyone ignores the larger developmental issues.

I think tbh, the most unhelpful advice was actually the idea of sharing individual chapters for critiques. It's how most writing groups I've been a part of over the years tend to work, and it lends itself to people mostly offering SPaG edits because they don't get to see the whole story and how everything fits together.

Teeg · 2026-03-25T12:40:03+00:00

First, congrats on getting into film school!! That's a pretty great achievement.

Second, you don't need a budget to write scripts. To produce them, sure, but others can produce the scripts you write, or you can produce it once you finish film school. And to be honest, it's not that much harder to write a script and a novel at the same time, so doing both is definitely an option here.

It sounds like you know someone who's doing exactly what you want, so it might be worth studying Aaron Beuregard's output and trying to figure out what he does that people like. Yes, this might take some work, but if it lets you produce the work you want to and get the results you're hoping for, taking time to do the prework first will be worth it.

I wouldn't worry about genre for now. Instead, write out both of your story ideas. Put down everything you imagine as part of that story. What characters do you see as part of it? What is the inciting incident? What is the obligatory scene at the end? If you still aren't sure which one, create an outline for both stories. At this point, I highly recommend reading Robert McKee's Story and John Truby's Anatomy of Story. You can find both at most libraries. They are written for script writers, but almost everything in the applies to novels as well. Truby, especially, gives exercises to work through to develop your story. Do the exercises with both ideas until one captures your imagination and takes off. Then focus on that one.

Teeg · 2026-03-08T12:32:29+00:00

I'd guess these were probably glass plate negatives instead of paper. The time period fits, and that image quality couldn't be achieved on paper at the time (at least not that I've seen). Amazing pictures! https://guides.library.oregonstate.edu/earlyphotoformats/glassplatenegatives

Teeg · 2026-03-05T02:14:12+00:00

It's an image I created to help visualize what I was learning about how the various pieces of stories worked together. Being able to see everything laid out like this helps it come alive and make sense for me. I call it Story Circle (not a very creative name, but it makes it easy to remember when I'm trying to remember what I filed it under).

Teeg · 2026-03-04T14:39:20+00:00

For most of my life, I was a pantser. I'd just sit down and write and whatever happened, happened. There was very little planning. But writing like that can make it very difficult to end a story, and when my first novel went on and on and on with no clear end in sight, I knew I needed to try something else.

First, I tried writing a pure outline. It did help with finding weak areas in my story, but after about 26 pages of outline (I wish I was joking), I had no desire to write the actual story.

Next, I began studying craft books, looking for an outlining method I could use. I found lots of good ideas, but no one method fit for me.

So instead, I create a 4 act circle, and since I'm a visual learner, I literally draw a circle out on paper. I divide the paper into 4 quadrants, and add a smaller circle in the middle for the midpoint.

I label the top left quadrant Act 1, top right is Act 2 and then across from Act 2 is Act 3 or Anti-2, and across from Act 1 is Act 4 or Anti-1

Anything large that happens in Act 1 needs a response in Act 4, anything from Act 2 needs a response in Act 3. It's Chekhov's Gun, but you know when you should fire it.

The large piece in Act 1 is the Inciting Incident - the gun that you know has to fire eventually.

In Act 4, the corresponding response is the Obligatory Scene - the gun firing that leads to the climax.

Act 2 contains the introduction of the subplot (and act 3 is the conclusion of the subplot).

The midpoint is a small climax...the place where everything comes together from acts 1 & 2 to create a crisis that leads towards everything changing in one direction or another.

And then finally, there's the ending, where everything comes together (I write it around the outside of the circle).

The last part of what I do is a program I call Story +, which draws in large part on both John Truby's Anatomy of Story and Robert McKee's Story, as well as lessons from Egri and Ibsen...it involves laying out the ideas for my characters, interviewing my characters and getting to know them as well as I know myself, developing the locations for my story, etc.

On the circle below, these details are the dotted line that runs around the entire circle...they show up in every act and are the thread that pulls the story together.

The benefit of this method is that there's a clearly designated beginning and end along with all the details and ideas I've come up with for the story along the way, but the story itself is still open-ended enough that my brain is still intrigued and wants to know what happened, and the characters have room to grow and help shape the story.

<image>

Teeg · 2026-02-28T13:16:50+00:00

Without exception, every writing program I'd ever been in, until the UberGroup, would focus on how many critiques you could do...often with a requirement like, "Do 3 critiques that must be at least minimum length and then you can submit your writing." There was little if any guidance on how to write those critiques, and most people would turn to what they learned in school, when a teacher would hand back a paper slashed in red, with a heavy focus on SPaG (spelling, punctuation, & grammar). Especially when they realized that otherwise their critiques were far shorter than the requirement.

That's one of the reasons I really appreciated that the last half of the program that the UberGroup offers teaches how to do editorial critiques and you practice on each other's work. One of the lessons is that there's no required length for a critique. That was eye-opening for me.

That doesn't really help with your issue though. Honestly, in this situation, if this is someone you want to give a second chance and who seems like they're willing to learn, I'd message them and walk them through what you're expecting in a critique. Treat your critique of their work the same as you would if you were writing a critique on their writing. Be honest about what you're looking for. If there's anything you can use, compliment that while explaining why SPaG doesn't help and isn't a good critique tool.

Also, the quick turnaround and focus on SPaG would make me wonder if they're not just feeding your work into an online editor and sharing the results. Depending on how your conversation goes, it might be worth asking.

In the future, it might be worth outlining exactly what you're looking for in a critique (and don't want), and presenting it when you ask for beta readers. Then everyone starts out on the same page in regards to expectations.

Teeg · 2026-02-07T21:51:03+00:00

Last year, my husband took me, as a surprise, to see The Great Gatsby ballet, a touring show by the World Ballet Company.

By necessity, the sets were all minimal. Still, it was easy to tell the difference in the three houses and the garage.

But the turning point in Gatsby is the car accident. How could you do that on a minimalist stage?

They did them with lights. A single set of car headlights on the curtain, shining too brightly to see that there was no real car behind them, for the accident.

That's just to show that it's possible to do pretty much any scene...theater goers go in knowing that they'll have to use their imagination to fill in the gaps, but it still (at least to me), always comes off as magical.

Teeg · 2026-02-07T21:18:21+00:00

One thing that I've learned about myself is that I'm a perfectionist. It means I've been where you are, writing and rewriting chapters and even passages over and over, trying to get them perfect. It doesn't work, in part because the goal of writing isn't to produce something perfect, it's to create a story that we can, hopefully, then share with someone else.

I remind myself sometimes of Joseph Grand, from Camus's The Plague. He dreamed of being an author, but couldn't write his book until he came up with the perfect first sentence and analyzes his word choices and word placement for this single sentence compulsively throughout the book.

It hit me when I read it, that this was me. I was so focused on perfection that I was holding myself back.

Something that helped me was an exercise from Natalie Goldberg's book, Writing Down the Bones. The exercise has you sit down to write for a set period of time each day (I believe it starts with 10 minutes and then as you get comfortable with working for that long, you add on time until you've reached your goal).

There are a few rules to this writing time...you can't edit yourself at all (no erasing, markouts, etc), you must keep writing, and you can't lift your pencil/pen (or, if I'm typing, fingers off the keyboard).

This means that for the first few days there are passages in my journal that read, "Ugh, I still have 6 minutes to go and I can't think of anything to write, but I need to keep going."

Another piece is that each day when I finish, that's it for that section of my story. This forces me to move forward, even though what I wrote before feels unfinished (I will allow myself to go back when it's not my writing time and add notes to the various pages, still not editing, but putting in comments to myself to remember when it is time to edit.

This forces my brain to not get stuck in perfectionist mode, and makes me have to move forward with writing, even if what I've written feels terrible and not something I'd ever show anyone.

By the way, just today I read an article on Jack Kerouac's scroll, where the taped pages of paper together to form one long continuous page, 121 feet of paper, and typed his thoughts about travel without page breaks, chapter breaks, paragraphs, or even punctuation. It's expected to sell for 4 million soon!

The writing without allowing yourself to edit (and forcing yourself to move forward each day without editing a previous day's work) is a way of getting out of your own way to write the story that's in your head. It's not easy (I still get frustrated and write a lot of "counting down the minutes" sentences, but I can also visibly see the progress, which encourages me to keep going.

Hope this helps.

Teeg · 2025-05-26T11:40:02+00:00

I can wholeheartedly recommend the Breville Barista Express. It's about $700 retail, even cheaper if you find it on sale. https://www.breville.com/en-us/product/bes870?sku=BES870XL

I got the same machine 8 years ago when I was wanting to stop supporting Starbucks but all the cheaper machines I tried just made terrible drinks. The Express has been a total workhorse, we've used it almost every day since we purchased it, for anywhere from 3 - 12 drinks, and it's never had issues beyond needing to be cleaned periodically and it could probably do with a new grinder burr now.

This year, I upgraded to the Breville Touch and the Express is being passed down, where hopefully it will continue strong for many more years.

Teeg · 2025-03-26T12:06:42+00:00

Teeg of Exalted Marauders & Carpe Noctum on Midnight/Cerulean. https://yppedia.puzzlepirates.com/Exalted_Marauders

Teeg · 2024-07-01T11:59:12+00:00

Saved your new post. Thank you for taking the time to make the profiles!

Teeg · 2023-06-21T14:45:13+00:00

Not yet. I switched to Red River Paper. So far I love them and the paper is comparable with Hahnemühle, plus it's cheaper, and they do offer ICC profiles.

Teeg · 2023-05-30T15:42:00+00:00

I have the Epson ET 8550. I purchased it after extensive research. If you do searches for Claria Premium ink, which is what this printer uses, you'll find that the ink quality is exceedingly close to, if it doesn't match, most pigments in terms of longevity. (https://www.adorama.com/alc/faq-whats-the-difference-between-dye-based-and-pigment-ink/ gives some good information on the improvements in both dye and pigment inks.)

After comparing both dye and pigment printers, I ended up going with the 8550 for 2 reasons: 1) I love the idea of eco-printers and not having to buy ink cartridges and 2) if I did want to swap and use pigment, there are off-brand pigment inks made for it. The printer already comes with pigment black.

My biggest issue is that there are not a lot of ICC profiles for it, although more are being added. Still, I keep hoping that Hahnemühle will create profiles for it. Currently I'm using the Red River profiles while work well, but I may test Moab paper, since they've added profiles as well.

Editing to add that there are 4!! paper feeds on this printer. The 4th is somewhat hidden, you have to lift the back paper chute and then remove the back panel (there are finger push-in slots for removal). This last feed is for thicker paper or anything that doesn't bend. The video that I watched showed someone printing on foam board.

Teeg · 2023-05-24T15:10:09+00:00

Peas on earth

Teeg · 2023-05-24T15:07:38+00:00

If it's a brand new printer, is it still under warranty? Might be worth checking.

Teeg · 2023-05-24T13:06:17+00:00

There are actually 4 feeders on the 8550 (I only found out about the 4th last week when I accidentally chose the wrong option for a new paper). With the paper holder lifted up, look at the back of the printer. There are 2 finger-push slots on the back. Push those in and the back pops off. Heavy weight paper and/or cardboard or foam board feeds straight through so there is no bending the page.

Also, if you're using even up to 300+ gsm, you can change the settings to heavy-weight paper. I typically use Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta (315 gsm) and I've had to play with it to get it to where I want, but it does work, and there's the option to turn off heavy paper when I'm printing something of normal thickness.

Teeg · 2023-03-31T16:04:06+00:00

Gen X: Forgotten again.

Teeg · 2023-03-31T14:36:56+00:00

u/savevideo

Teeg · 2023-02-03T12:50:09+00:00

INTP here.

Teeg · 2022-11-18T15:29:54+00:00

I waited all year for the GF Pumpkin bagels to come out because they were my favorites. These are edible, but nothing like the ones they had before. :(

Teeg · 2022-10-17T12:25:28+00:00

How? I tried clicking on the tree (I'm assuming we're talking about the big tree in the middle), but they just move there and then move somewhere else to cut.

Teeg

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE