Advice from Book Publishing Pros That Made Me Cringe (And How You Can Turn It into Gold)

Gina Kammer Author

Jul 15, 2024 |

To save you from the worst writing faux pas, I want to share three pieces of advice that often do more harm than good.

Advice from Book Publishing Pros That Made Me Cringe (And How You Can Turn It into Gold)

As a professional editor and book coach specializing in science fiction and fantasy, I’ve encountered all sorts of advice from well-meaning publishing pros. Some of it is gold, but some of it, frankly, makes me cringe. To save you from the worst writing faux pas, I want to share three pieces of advice that often do more harm than good—and show you how to turn that bad advice into strategies for crafting better stories.

The Worst Novel Writing Advice

The worst pieces of advice I’ve heard from professionals about writing novels have a common origin: a lack of knowledge about the why behind story craft. In other words, the professionals doling out such cringe-worthy recommendations don’t seem to have a firm understanding for the reasons they do some things or don’t do others when writing a novel. They don’t know why certain craft staples are effective or not. Often, this means they aren’t able to provide the full picture, and the recommendations turn into truly bad advice.

1. The Flaw in Flawed Characters

The Bad Advice: Give your characters a flaw to make them realistic.

In one interview on craft, the interviewee advised authors to give their characters a flaw. And, I mean, yeah. That’s true… But the kind of flaw matters.

The professional said a character should be created to be “vulnerable, admirable, flawed, and funny” to be realistic and someone “readers can identify and bond with.” She even noted how humans are naturally self-centered and need to care about characters first. But it was pretty clear she didn’t know what actually makes readers care or bond with characters.

You can learn way more about all that in my Enchant Your Readers program, which delves into the brain science behind the reader experience and using story to trigger, subconsciously, a reader’s emotional memories.

We humans are self-centered. We do need to care about characters first. That part, this professional got right. But we care when we know how a character cares—when we can understand that character. In that sense, it might not even matter how “realistic” the character is, as long as we can understand the character. We don’t even have to agree with them.

What to Do Instead: Go deeper with your character flaw until it stems from your character’s motivation. The external flaw doesn’t matter as much. The motivation behind it does.

So yes, give your character a flaw. But go deep with that flaw. Keep asking “why” behind each flaw your character has until you know the reasons for that flaw. How is it part of your character’s core (corrupted) truth? The not-very-healthy driver for everything your character thinks and does? That consistent motivation will not only drive tension throughout your story but your readers will understand—and therefore care about—your character.

2. Avoid Avoiding Flashbacks

The Bad Advice: Avoid backstory and flashbacks.

Toward the end of the interview, this professional also noted how there should be no backstory except one transformative flashback scene later in the novel. Anything else had to be revealed through dialogue or cut (more on the dialogue piece next…).

Oh, I was cringing hard at that one. It’s such a common mistake for writers.

Even the interviewer tried to backpedal a bit on that advice. Telling through dialogue doesn’t solve the issue. Plus, it flies in the face of what agents have told my clients when they want more connection to the characters.

Yes, backstory can be done poorly too, but it’s also necessary for understanding a character. So we use it strategically and when it packs the most punch. Yet I’ve heard more than this particular professional guide writers to avoid any backstory or flashback almost entirely.

What to Do Instead: Use flashbacks when they relate clearly to the story-present and reveal something readers are craving to know—when they crave it.

Readers need the backstory insight in order to understand your character and your character’s motivations. This helps readers care and gives the story-present (the forward-moving timeline of the main narrative) more weight.

But readers don’t want the forward momentum to stall out. So treat flashbacks like clues in a mystery novel. Drop them in after you’ve already teased them in the story-present. That way a reader is so hungry for the knowledge by the time it’s provided, a flashback will feel like a nugget of gold instead of a sidetrack down memory lane.

You can achieve this effect when you make sure the flashback relates clearly to what’s happening in the story-present—even though you won’t have to say so in the narrative. Give your readers the benefit of the doubt by letting them fill in those connections. Then they’ll still feel like they’re making forward progress!

3. Fix Fixing Craft Problems with Dialogue

The Bad Advice: Almost anything to do with dialogue…

I need to break this one down into some sub-parts in order to summarize all the bad advice I’ve heard thrown around regarding dialogue—its opening placement, using it for providing information, worldbuilding, and making it realistic. Some professionals really love the idea that any common craft issue might be solved with dialogue. But dialogue is no bandage for infodumping, telling, or adding in worldbuilding. After all, you’re writing a novel—not a script.

1. "Start with Dialogue"

On the surface, starting with dialogue might seem like a good idea. Dialogue is dynamic, seems immediate, and can pull readers into the action. However, starting your novel with dialogue can be risky, especially since we already discussed how important it is for readers to care about a character. Opening with dialogue can leave your readers confused, disoriented, and struggling to understand why they should care in the first place.

Think of opening with dialogue from a reader perspective: you don’t yet know who you’re reading about, but someone is speaking. You’re not even sure who. You don’t know why this speech or this speaker matters yet because you don’t know whose lens you’re viewing this world through. You might even skim forward to find some context and a better purchase in the story—if you don’t give up and switch to one of the many other novels waiting in your TBR pile…

Confused readers are likely not to continue. It’s not like they’ve invested much in your story yet. So why would they continue?

Give them a better reason to care.

What to Do Instead: Start your novel with a character in tension.

Dialogue might seem active, but even action isn’t enough to make readers care on its own. (Learn more about how to make the most of your opening lines in this article!) But a character’s internal turmoil? The conflict between what the character wants and what the character is struggling with? That will compel a reader to make an immediate connection and care about what the character cares about.

2. "Reveal Background through Dialogue"

This piece of advice goes hand-in-hand with the fear of flashbacks or backstory. It’s offered up by professionals as an alternative to having to use the dreaded flashback. “Only reveal background information through dialogue!” they say. Perhaps such professionals believe that “telling” through dialogue makes it “showing.”

But the truth is that “telling,” even through dialogue, is still “telling.” You can’t get around “show, don’t tell” by having it masquerade as dialogue.

Quick sidenote: Now, you might be wondering why “show don’t tell” isn’t on this list of bad advice, and you’d be right—it is bad advice! Not all instances of “telling” are wrong. Not by a longshot. Yet so many writers still struggle with “showing,” and so the advice still holds as a good reminder, even if it shouldn’t be taken as an all-or-nothing approach. Sign up with a free student account HERE to get access to my private blog article, “Giving Your Novel Voice,” for more on this topic.

Using this bad advice often leads to clunky, unnatural dialogue that feels more like an infodump than a conversation. Characters end up explaining things they already know to each other for the sake of the reader, which can break immersion and make your characters seem less believable or consistent.

What to Do Instead: Use a variety of techniques to reveal background information.

Yes! Make use of strategically placed flashbacks to reveal backstory. Let your character’s perspective and inner thoughts provide background clues. And sure, use some dialogue when it makes sense to reveal bits of background information. You’re a creative writer—get creative!

The background information should add to your novel’s emotional impact and not subtract from it with explanation. Let readers come to understand the past through the characters’ actions, thoughts, and interactions. Use subtext and context clues to convey necessary information without resorting to exposition-heavy dialogue.

3. "Explain the World, Politics, History, etc. through Dialogue"

Similar to the previous point, this advice often results in dialogue that feels forced and unnatural. It also makes the element of dialogue necessarily unbalanced in your story when a character speaks for paragraphs on end to explain everything.

While it’s important for readers to understand the complexities of your world, dumping all that information through dialogue will still make their eyes glaze over. They’ll be skimming at best and disengage at worst.

What to Do Instead: Scaffold your worldbuilding information for an immersive experience.

Diversify the methods you use to reveal your world’s background, politics, and history. Think of your story as a tapestry, where each thread contributes to the overall picture. Use a combination of dialogue, narrative exposition, character actions, and environmental details to gradually build a rich, immersive world.

Introduce no more than one new concept or name at a time if possible. Layer the additional pieces into your manuscript as they become more immediately relevant. Most of all, let your decisions be guided by whatever your character actually cares about or would notice at any given time.

4. "Write Dialogue Realistically"

Have you ever read an unedited transcript of someone who was unscripted? Then you have your answer about why this is bad advice for writing dialogue. In true realistic speech, we imperfect humans falter, needlessly repeat, cut ourselves off, add in tangents, stop to provide additional context, and often fail to get to the point we originally were trying to make.

And it’s absolute torture to have to read such a transcript. Don’t endeavor to put your readers through that.

The reality (pun intended) is that stories actually must be “neater” than real life. We want to learn from stories. We use story to help us make order out of chaos and give us a fuller perspective of the world in order to make sense of things. That’s why stories follow certain structures and universals. They reflect true evils and triumphs, but they put it all into a more digestible, satisfactory order.

So too your story’s dialogue should only reflect true human speech in essence, not exactness. Perhaps a faltering line here to show the character emotion, or an interrupted line there to emphasize the urgency of the moment—these will do the job of story believability while also working much harder for you.

What to Do Instead: Use dialogue to work harder for your story’s forward progression and tension.

Your novel’s dialogue can do so much more for your story than show your strict adherence to realism. Let’s be honest—we write in speculative genres for a reason! And that reason isn’t usually to be all that realistic…

So work that subtext behind what a character says (and doesn’t say). Show emotion through word choice and sentence structure. Cut characters off when it counts for something more than showing the imperfection of human speech patterns.

Your story’s dialogue should be helping to create forward movement through change in your scenes and not repeating things readers can already infer. Let readers also infer the “realism” of the dialogue through a few intentional reflections of speech imperfections rather than making them suffer through the exact transcript.

Turning Cringe into Craft

By critically examining the advice you receive and adapting it to suit the needs of your story, you can turn cringe-worthy tips into valuable strategies. Your goals are the 3 Keys to Reader Enchantment: meet reader expectations, enlighten your readers through your purpose, and open portals to worlds and emotions in an immersive experience.

Make your readers care by showing them how your character cares. Give your character flawed motivation—not just a “flaw.” Let them understand your character deeply. And that means not shying away from backstory, but using strategically placed flashbacks as desired reveals. Immerse your readers in your world, weaving background information organically and as it matters, using a variety of methods to layer in information for an easier reader learning curve.

These stories about cringeworthy advice from respected professionals is, at face value, a plea for you to do your due diligence when hiring professionals. Referrals are often best. And once you know the whys behind the craft advice through my 3 Keys to Reader Enchantment, you can apply it to any professional feedback you hear from your firm foundation backed in brain science.

To learn more about the 3 Keys and gain a stronger foundation in story craft, enroll in the Enchant Your Readers book coaching program. Finally feel confident in knowing what craft advice to follow when—and why.

Categories: : book coaching, editing, manuscript stages, novel drafting, novel planning, writer mindset