Don’t become the Southwest Airlines of writing
In an attempt to reverse its falling stock price, Southwest Airlines announced it will start assigning seats to its passengers.
Congratulations, Southwest—you just became indistinguishable from every other airline!
Writers would be smart to question adopting every piece of writing advice they hear so as not to become the Southwest Airlines of literature.
The thing about writing advice is that it’s not one-size-fits-all, despite how some people may make it seem.
Show, don’t tell – I’d argue that good writing is a balance of showing and telling. The struggle lies in knowing when to show and when to tell.
Don’t use passive voice. – Active voice is often the better choice, but passive voice has its place, as it’s great for keeping a particular character in focus, or for being intentionally vague, such as when you don’t want to give away who done it in a mystery novel.
Always use double quotation marks for dialogue. – Cormac McCarthy, Carson McCullers, and Irvine Welsh would like a word with you. I’d love to be able to pull a Cormac McCarthy and get away with throwing away quotation marks, but I’ll instead have to settle for using single quotation marks like Carson McCullers.
Don’t use adverbs and flowery language. – I personally agree, but to say this has no place at all means you just killed Vladimir Nabokov’s career.
How many first-person literary novels wouldn’t exist if every writer followed the advice to always write in third-person and past tense?
What do a writer got if they ain’t got voice?
If you buy into the idea that every story’s already been told, then how can you set yourself apart from the sea of other writers?
You lean on your voice. And what is your voice? Your voice is the style decisions you make in your regular writing. It’s how you choose to present your words, your thoughts, your points.
In short, your voice is your marketing. Don’t throw your voice away and give up on standing out like Southwest Airlines just did. If anything, lean into those decisions. Just know why you do what you do.
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