Red and Green Flags in Writing Discourse
Given that a lot of you are here specifically to read my articles and episodes about writing (as best I can tell from my analytics anyway), it stands to reason that a lot of you are probably also writers. So, it also follows that a lot of you are probably familiar with what things can get like over on writer Bluesky/Twitter or booktok or what have you.
That is to say, you’ve almost certainly come across a decent amount of weirdly hostile discourse from within the industry. Even between small independent authors or editors, publishers etc. working for indie presses. So often, those of us who most desperately need to support each other and lift each other up are dragging each other down and farming outrage in the hopes that the discourse will create engagement and promote our work. And, to an extent, it’s sad that this probably works somewhat as far as attracting attention goes. Algorithms love outrage.
In saying that though, I don’t think that every bit of advice or criticism is intended negatively or is toxic in nature. Honestly, I think the majority of writers and other artists out there are more interested in helping each other. There’s loads of creators on social media who are genuinely interested in looking out for and helping each other. Through my work on my own books, on this site and through Stories Across Borders and Ficsation, I’ve been lucky to come across a fair few such people. It’s just unfortunate that algorithms often favour ragebaiting.
So, how can you weed out the genuine and helpful from people trying to irritate the community into making them more visible? Well, I’m going to do my best to give my own take on how to tell the two apart.
It’s one thing to say “you should do X” or “you shouldn’t do Y”, but it’s another thing entirely to be able to give a reason for either. A reason that should also be good and well-informed. If the reason given amounts to personal beliefs or tastes, prudism or some sort of agenda - you’re probably not looking at good advice. If a person is giving you good advice, they should be able to easily explain why adopting their suggestions will provide you with tangible benefits. I won’t say sources are essential since some of this will definitely come down to personal experience in an industry like this, but if someone can provide examples or sources, that’s even better. If someone is telling you that you shouldn’t do something but they can’t tell you why, their reasoning amounts to personal preference or they can’t identify why making their suggested change would benefit you; I wouldn’t necessarily recommend taking that advice without at least seeing if other, more reputable, sources agree.
Tone is also a pretty good indicator a lot of the time. If the post or video comes off as aggressive, petty or pretentious; it’s a solid bet that it’s a post more interested in tearing people down or inflating one’s own ego than in providing legitimate tips for people looking to improve. Advice posts aimed at shooting down others - especially specific other creators - are rarely routed in a desire to help anyone, if ever. Of course, there’s a big difference between flaming and calling out abusive, concerning or toxic behaviour though.
Another really good way to tell is to see what’s going on in the comments of the post. If there is actual discussion about why/why not the advice has proved helpful or not and the original poster is engaging with questions (and providing actual reasoned answers), that’s quite possibly the biggest green flag you might come across. If the poster is in the comments flinging insults, being petty and acting like a child when people raise questions or disagree with them; chances aren’t high that they were looking to help people to begin with.
Of course, I don’t mean to suggest that anything I have said here is a steadfast rule or anything like that. Hell, identifying social queues is not exactly a strong suit of mine. But these seem like some common sense tips that all of us (myself included) might stand to keep in mind sometimes when browsing Twitter or wherever you like to engage with other writers.
More than anything else though, I want to end this with a reminder that creators need to support each other - especially independent creators who don’t have big brands or companies backing them. Too often our instinct is to hurt others and push people down to elevate ourselves. But we can’t give in to those temptations without a damn good reason. We live in a world where people with more power, resources, acclaim and reach are constantly stepping on us and pushing us down to benefit themselves. Corporations, vanity presses, AI-slop loving frauds and fakers, scam artists etc etc. It’s true that we’re all involved in a highly competitive industry, but let’s leave the competition to the products and focus on reaching out and helping each other more when we’re in a position to do so.
