(very) bad advice

This is, I'll admit, a pet peeve of mine: More established writers  who seem compelled to issue grand  statements about writing. Such statements usually fall into one of two categories: the do this, don't do that admonitions, or  the proclamation fiction is going to hell in a handbasket because… Note: I'm talking here about those who write fiction. The grammar police have their own crazy little universe, and I am not going there.  But see Geoffrey Pullum's excellent post on this subject (5o Years of Stupid Grammar Advice) at the Chronicle of Higher Education. People who are trying to write or establish themselves as writers seem to suck up these pronouncements  and run off with them without looking very closely.  Here's my favorite (or better said) least favorite example of the second kind of pronouncement, from John Gardner: If our furniture was as poorly made as our fiction, we would always be falling onto the floor. I have seen this quoted many times by many different writers with something approaching reverence. Gardner was by all reports an excellent teacher, but this statement? Meaningless. The comparison between making furniture and writing fiction, and the success or failure of either is specious at best.   To me it sounds like a cranky old uncle scolding kids for the imminent end of the world. Just today I came across a more recent example of the 'do this, don't do that' category,  with the foreboding title "45 Ways to Avoid Using the Word 'Very'" posted by a group who offers writing courses in South Africa.  Two examples of their suggestions: instead of writing 'very clever' write 'brilliant' and for 'very bad' write 'atrocious.' This kind of blanket advice will rarely do […]