Rules are tools, not laws.
"Showing" and "telling" are rhetorical choices, you need to know when to use which. Showing (immersive details) invites reader interpretation. Telling (direct statements) clarifies or moves the story forward.
"Keep it simple, stupid" is a fallacy. Emotional clarity and dramatic impact matter more than just reducing words. But "simplicity" doesn’t mean "hollow." Sacrificing depth in for oversimplified prose is stupid.
"Make it concise" works only when the prose is overbloated. Story’s purpose should dictate how much or how little is needed.
"Write an outline, dummy" only works for dummies. Outlines can be useful, but over-planning will strangle creativity. Drama often emerges from organic character interactions and that strict outlines can sometimes flatten that emotional impact you seek when writing.
"Whenever you're stuck, kill a character" is a cheap emotional trick. Death in storytelling should have thematic and emotional weight, not just exist as a writer’s crutch. Drama and tension should emerge from deeper conflicts, and death is culmination of them.
"Write what you want to write" is incomplete. The real quote is "write what you love, but understand how to make others care."
"Write what the readers want" is a stupid mindset. Persuasion is about resonance, not blind conformity of stale tropes, aka a story should invite readers into the author’s vision, rather than just mimic popular tropes.
"Use only 'said'/'asked' dialogue tags" is only good advice here. "Said" can be neutral but also invisible. But, variety in dialogue presentation matters, too many "said"s can be dull, but overuse of fancy alternatives can feel overwritten and distracting. Balance is key. Dialogue tags must be chosen to match tone and rhythm, rather than blindly following this rule.
"Use only action tags" is stupid. Action beats can smoothly integrate the description, but being too theatrical is stupid. Action should serve a rhetorical function and not just be flashy for its own sake. Action tags are tools, not absolute rule everyone must follow.
"Use no tags and say, 'fuck it, the reader doesn’t need to know who’s talking'" is stupid for a beginner. Clarity builds reader trust, and if dialogue tag doesn't clarify, it is not needed in that context. The best approach for this contextual awareness.
At the end of the day, writing mastery comes from understanding why certain techniques work in some situations but fail in others, not blindly following "da rules" some armchair writers had written on the internet. Peace.
