Writers beware . . .

This isn't a post about disreputable agents or scammy vanity presses. No, what I'm warning you against, fellow writer, is a more dangerous entity than simply a bad agent or a pay-to-publish outfit masquerading as a legitimate publisher.

I'm talking about über-bossy writers. Have you encountered the know-it-all-writer before? Maybe in a forum or some kind of online writing community? (They love to hang out online.)

These super-bossy author-wannabes have an answer for everything: how to write, word choice, diction, what your query letter should be like, what should and shouldn't be in a synopsis. They always relay this information with the utmost confidence. They never temper their advice with phrases such as, "you might consider," or "it's only my opinion."

Instead, they dole out the advice like gravy at a firehouse turkey supper, using phrases like, "don't ever," "you better," "change," "fix," often with a snide, superior tone.

Once in their childhood someone must have told these bossmeisters, "You're not the boss of me." And they were so taken aback, they set about being the boss of everyone else as an adult.

Through the creative writing program at Wilkes University, I met many published authors and few of them ever forced their opinions on your writing. If you define successful writers as published ones, then these successful writers were more likely to use inquiry than directive to allow you to discover the strongest answer or direction.

A lifelong reader, once I decided to pursue creative writing, I wanted to succeed. So badly, at times, I put myself in a position to be bossed around in a few writing forums. I wanted to tell them to take their bad advice and shove it up their arses, but I didn't.

I wish I were more of a vigilante by nature, but my sense of  justice isn't that refined. When I encounter bossy writers in forums, generally I avoid them rather than confronting them. Then I go write a piece on my writing blog about how destructive those bossy know-it-alls can be and that less experienced writers who are eager for information should steer clear of them like cruise ships heading for icebergs.

Bertrand Russell said, "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people are so full of doubt."

Avoid the cocksure types. Turn to those instead who encourage you to develop your own faculties and judgment as a writer rather than relying on theirs.

Now, I have not personally been impacted by a bossy writer type lately--not for years. I'll no longer give them that latitude with me or my writing. I won't put myself in that position.

But I see them on forums occasionally, like on the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award discussion board. They're so certain of the advice they dispense to noobs. Yet, they themselves don't advance in the contest and year after year, remain unpublished.

Now, keeping it real, in terms of my novels, I'm unpublished, too. However, I don't ram my advice down other writers' throats either. I put my opinions out there while encouraging other writers to develop the confidence to make their own best choices, to learn to trust their gut--not mine.

I wish more amateur writers would do the same. Then I wouldn't have to write blog posts encouraging other writers to beware.