What is the biggest thing you've had to UNLEARN as an artist to grow in your craft?

[JayJams78]

I am posting this thread on both this board and the Poetry board because I believe it is so important.

I have spent years laboring to hone my craft as a poet, a story writer, a musician, and a lyricist. The thing that has most amazed me is how much of that wasn't learning something new, but unlearning and uncluttering to get at things I've known instinctively since I was a child. Yes, I'm still talking writing here, though life principles often tend to apply.
So what I'd like to hear, and have others hear, is what the biggest UNLEARNED lessons have been in your journey as a writer. Maybe they are lessons the rest of us would do well to unlearn too

 

[SamScribble]

Don't try to be clever

 

[MrPixel]

Nothing of note in my adult life. I did expend a lot of effort in high school unlearning some really bad lessons from a seriously incompetent 8th grade English teacher. I didn't know enough at the time to know she was full of $#!+ on so many issues: punctuation, sentence construction, story organization, to mention a few.

I did, however, know enough to see through her lesson plan, which was duplicated year after year after year with zero variation. So I gave my copy of the required notebook to my girlfriend a year behind me so she and her friends could "predict" the by-rote assignments and have them done in advance. Somebody tipped their hand, and the following year this awful teacher required everybody to turn their notebooks in every night.

Now if we are talking about "art" in general, yeah, I had some unlearning to do when I took a college conducting course. I had developed some bad habits and tics with the baton, a conducting style developed over a few decades of leading volunteer community ensembles. It was eye-opening; I find myself still falling into the old traps sometimes.

 

[HeyAll]

Off the top of my head, I don't think I've had to unlearn anything, because I didn't know anything about writing stories to begin with.

I learned how to write erotic short (about 6,000 words) from reading them.

 

[SimonDoom]

I can't think of much, off the top of my head, because like HeyAll, until I started writing stories here 5 years ago, I'd never written fiction in my adult life and never done much of anything artistically. I didn't really have anything to undo.

The only thing that comes to mind is certain lingering ideas that writing fiction was somehow different from the extensive writing I had done in my professional life, and that I should place it in a separate "box" as art as opposed to being like anything else. What I've found, for me, is it's more helpful to think of story-writing as a craft, and to approach it much like I would approach anything else I'd like to do well at. Fiction is obviously very different from other kinds of writing, but I do best when the attitude I take to it is the same as other things I want to do well. So, as I do with other types of writing, I do my research, I study the applicable rules and conventions, I plan and plot the stories and characters, I outline what I'm going to write, and then I write. This works for me.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I am posting this thread on both this board and the Poetry board because I believe it is so important.

I have spent years laboring to hone my craft as a poet, a story writer, a musician, and a lyricist. The thing that has most amazed me is how much of that wasn't learning something new, but unlearning and uncluttering to get at things I've known instinctively since I was a child. Yes, I'm still talking writing here, though life principles often tend to apply.
So what I'd like to hear, and have others hear, is what the biggest UNLEARNED lessons have been in your journey as a writer. Maybe they are lessons the rest of us would do well to unlearn too

"Two spaces after a period."

...I jest, I jest.

I'm currently listening to a novel where the heroine is fascinated with megalodons. Her mother tells her repeatedly "Nobody wants to hear your Megalodon Facts, Amelia!"

And then she meets a sea captain who enjoys listening to her rabbiting on about megalodons, and she starts learning that there are people out there who will treasure the things that make her unique instead of trying to hammer down everything that sticks out about her.

That's been an important lesson for me here: abandoning the fear of being too self-involved and realising that there are readers out there who are interested in the kinds of things I want to noodle about.

 

[PennameWombat]

I’m another who mostly began to learn to write fiction essentially coincident with posting here. So not like I’ve been thinking and working on this for a long time.

But in my cursory notice over the decades I’d seen “write from the heart and write with passion and it’ll succeed” many times (I still see this stated in many other places amateur writers gather). Well, sure, you need passion, but that’s nowhere near enough. So not that they aren’t important, but they’re just elements.

Also, “write what you know.” There are elements of that. I find I use certain motifs because I can reliably build those elements into stories, but using only such things would be way too limiting.

It’s been more that instead of unlearning things, it’s that once you sand off the slightest surface, plenty of the simple aphorisms that you hear are only kind of useful.

 

[litfan10]

I was taught and found to be true that writers are creatures of habit.
Some do their best writing in the morning; some in the afternoon, and others at night.
Silence for some, music or background tv for others.
Some write better at a desk, some on a bed etc.
I was told to find my ideal conditions then take advantage of them to get the "best" results.
I was a late night writer at a desk with music playing and a bright light overhead with another light by my right side.

Well, reality taught me a thing or two about that.

Hard to write at night when an editor calls with a gig that 'needs to be on my desk in an hour.'

I had to train myself to do my best no matter the time or conditions. Quality morning writing took forever to master.

 

[JayJams78]

Guys, this is all awesome. This kind of advice to writers is why I started this thread. Please, please, please keep this going. What's coming out here is absolutely invaluable literary wisdom. Thank you.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Probably the idea that art is done in defined periods of time, undisturbed, etc.
Julia Cameron wrote about how her books were achieved though making use of tiny snatches of time, and I've tried to do the same.

My writing now is all done on my mobile phone, in checkout queues, play parks, in bed, while cooking...

The other thing to get rid of was the idea of inspiration. 'Action breeds motivation' is much more like it. I have the same model as writing in my day job, now - first drafts are always shit but a necessary skeleton for adding to, pruning, and rearranging to make a much better draft. At least with my fiction I have the luxury of being able to put drafts away for a few weeks so I can then see them with fresh eyes. Though with work it's easier to find someone else to edit them...

 

[TadOverdon]

Adverbs and dialogue tags. Also, a tendency to too many qualifiers in general, run-on sentences. Keeping things short and declarative wherever possible.

Every day, I fail.

 

[karaline]

Like others, I've never had any formal writing training, but the thing I must constantly vigilant of is remembering to show not tell

 

[oggbashan]

Not to write like a textbook or user manual. I had published several in my career - now long out of date, but my publications list, single-spaced, ran to two A4 pages in 10 font.

 

[yowser]

Less is usually more.

 

[purplishy]

Writing is art, and like all art, it is never finished; only abandoned.

A blank sheet of paper can be the most intimidating thing in the world, and the perfect is the enemy of the good (and the done). I've struggled so many times just to get something started, but I have to keep reminding myself that the first draft doesn't need to be any good! No one is going to read it. Write run-on sentences, crazy things with semicolons, characters with names that change -- it doesn't matter! Just get something on paper. You can always go back later and clean it up.

 

[Bramblethorn]

"Don't edit as you go, concentrate on getting a first draft done first then polish it later".

A lot of how-tos teach this one. But it just doesn't work for me, and I've discovered that there are pro authors who use the same "edit as you go" approach that I do.

"You have to write every day."

Another of those things that's promoted as universal advice but doesn't work for everybody. Don't beat yourself up if the method that works for some other author isn't right for you.

 

[SamScribble]

"Don't edit as you go, concentrate on getting a first draft done first then polish it later".

A lot of how-tos teach this one. But it just doesn't work for me, and I've discovered that there are pro authors who use the same "edit as you go" approach that I do.

I didn't have to unlearn this. I never took to it in the first place.

 

[PoisonPen33]

Don't rely on pop culture references. They become obscure faster than you think.

Less is often more - try not to use three words when one will do.

Perfect is the enemy of excellent.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I didn't have to unlearn this. I never took to it in the first place.

I never really took to it either, but it took a while to realise I wasn't doing anything wrong by writing the way that worked for me.

 

[yukonnights]

Broadly speaking, the most transformative thing I've learned is; Do not heed too strongly much of the advice given, regardless the source. For example; 'Less is better than more.' — the truth is; this bit of advice is focused on one slice of the reading public pie; namely the ones that like flash fiction. I've found that there are audiences for pretty much every story regardless of style, theme, length, point-of view, etc. Therefore, what I've unlearned is worrying too much about story length, pov, theme, etc.

That, of course, leads to > Write what my muse leads me to and write it in the way I want to read it. Build it and they will come, etc. Also, you can't make everybody happy. Honestly, most all of us here are doing this as a hobby — who wants a hobby that turns into drudgery because of too much overthinking of the mechanics of it all. Probably, after awhile, we all settle into "our style" and also "our audience".

Also, we do learn from failures/mistakes too

 

[JayJams78]

Like others, I've never had any formal writing training, but the thing I must constantly vigilant of is remembering to show not tell

This was a huge one for me. Especially given the style and themes my poetry tends to take, it is very easy to preach at the reader. Problem is, people get bored with screeds and sermons.

A dear friend, one of the most gifted writers I know, called me on it. Show not tell. And you don't need to show everything. Trust your reader.

Once I learned to let my reader FEEL what I needed them to feel within the context of the work and to use the power of the implied, my writing was transformed. Finally, like the work and performance of those I was learning from, the true power of narrative started to come to life. My readers and listeners were no longer an audience to be preached to, but fellow travelers on a journey. That has made all the difference.

 

[lovecraft68]

To repeat others, I have no formal writing training, in fact I quit high school so I don't have a lot of formal education at all.

I think that held me back from trying as far as putting my work out for others to see, and the first couple of years my stories were just for my wife, because I was self concious.

But my wife pushed me, saying that a piece of paper on the wall doesn't mean a person is better than me. She pointed out I'd received several promotions at work because I worked hard, and had he desire and ability to learn as I went, and said that would apply with writing.

Once I got over that hump, I don't think there was anything else I've 'unlearned' but I've learned quite a bit over the last 10 years

 

[yowser]

Broadly speaking, the most transformative thing I've learned is; Do not heed too strongly much of the advice given, regardless the source. For example; 'Less is better than more.' — the truth is; this bit of advice is focused on one slice of the reading public pie; namely the ones that like flash fiction. I've found that there are audiences for pretty much every story regardless of style, theme, length, point-of view, etc. Therefore, what I've unlearned is worrying too much about story length, pov, theme, etc.

A good point not to take advice too seriously, but the 'less is more' part is not just for one part of the readership pie. A vast instinct exists in most writers (talkers and lecturers too, for which I plead guilty as well), to include more info than is necessary in telling a story. Use detail when it matters, absolutely, but a paring knife does wonders to most works -- white space is your writer's friend.

The huge majority of stories here would benefit from reduction, and the ability to cut back to just what moves the tale forward will benefit almost every writing effort.

 

[lovecraft68]

The huge majority of stories here would benefit from reduction, and the ability to cut back to just what moves the tale forward will benefit almost every writing effort.

But doesn't the fact longer stories do so well here kind of refute that point?

 

[KeithD]

The biggest thing I had to unlearn to be able to write fiction was to unravel the sentence and paragraph rules of college-level essay writing.