💡Why most Writing Advice is useless

Hey—It’s Mohammad.

It’s back to 70°F (21°C) here. Weather is crazy here which leads to some crazy ideas in my head. But just like unpredictable weather, writing advice can be all over the place—useful but hard to apply without the right timing.

Read Time: 3.6 minutes

Most writing advice sucks.

It’s not because it isn’t useful. It’s because you don’t know when to use it. It’s like giving you a hammer, screwdriver, a couple of nails, and a saw and your task is to build an airplane. Sure, you might have all the tools, but you don’t know when they’re needed.

Writing advice needs context.

You could make context from application:

• Copywriting

• Fiction Writing

• Nonfiction writing

• YouTube script writing

There’s so much overlapping advice that it’s hard to know what works. “Show don’t tell” works for all categories so when do you use it? And how do you use it? So, there’s gotta be a better way to organize writing advice.

Advice is more useful when organized by experience.

Experience is about where you are in your writing journey. Beginner, intermediate, expert, wherever. Because different levels of advice have different impacts.

An expert level advice might be using 4-corner opposition to create conflict between ideas in longer pieces of writing, but it won’t be as effective for a beginner if they haven’t practiced older skills like structure, character development, and story/character arcs.

There are 3 large buckets of writing experience:

• Bucket 1: Getting started

• Bucket 2: Keeping momentum

• Bucket 3: Building Critical Mass

Each bucket has its own set of advice. And advice in one bucket won’t be effective for other buckets.

Bucket 1) Getting Started

Beginners start here. Experts never leave here.

All advice in this bucket is to help get the ball rolling. Here we’re focused more on output rather than success or quality.

Common bucket 1 advice is:

• Write consistently.

• Write what you know.

• Write what interests you.

Bucket 2) Keeping Momentum

After you’ve published enough pieces, you get a sense of your own rhythm. Now you need to keep the momentum going and also bring up quality. In this stage, we focus on breaking down what writing you enjoy and imitating it.

Common bucket 2 advice is:

• Post Daily.

• Copy work.

• Morning Pages.

Bucket 3) Building Critical Mass

You’ve got consistency. You’ve got quality. Now most writers want an audience and (maybe) money from their work. Here we’re focusing what helps solidify you as an authority and builds critical mass as a writer.

The reason most writers don’t make a ton of money is because of distribution. This bucket advice aims to solve that problem.

Common bucket 3 advice is:

• Intentional Editing.

• Covering Evergreen topics.

• Write to 1 person: 1 pain point: 1 Solution

Splitting advice by experience tells you when it’s useful.

Advice on its own is useless. It’s like getting a tool that has purpose, but you don’t know when to use it. These buckets help categorize that writing advice.

But don’t just take my word for it, some of our friends on LinkedIn agree as well.

Reply to this email: What bucket are you in & what writing tip will you apply this week?

Strategy Sections are arranged in 3 steps:

1. The Diagnosis: What’s the root problem?

2. The Compass: How do you overcome unexpected hurdles? What’s the true north to follow regardless of what happens?

3. The Action Plan: What are the tactics to solve the problem?

The Diagnosis: The core problem is not knowing where you are skill-wise as a writer. If you’re unsure, start in bucket one.

The Compass: Focus on creating more than consuming.

The Action Plan: Apply 1 piece of advice each week and focus on improving that.

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