Bad Writing Advice...

A friend on a Yahoogroup came on with what he felt was the worst piece of writing advice he'd ever heard, but it didn't sound bad to me...just incomplete.

The advice he thought was bad advice? “Don't worry about your audience, just write for you. It sounded good at first, but it really isn’t good advice at all!"

My answer? "Actually, that's NOT bad advice, IF you take the following into account with it. There is a market for everything. Those markets are larger or smaller, but they exist. You can write what you want to write and then seek out the correct market for it and sell it there. That means making the conscious choice to make less money on some works, but it is your choice as author...be happy with what you write and seek the audience for it OR write to the market and shoot for the bucks, even if you are personally less satisfied with what you write."

So...topic for discussion? What other "bad writing advice" have you looked at and said, "That's not bad advice. It's just incomplete or badly framed?"

Brenna