December Daily: bad advice

[resonant]

19 -- jesse_the_k -- advice you regret following

The thing that springs to mind immediately is the one that says, "Ha ha ha, nobody can make a living as a writer!" Not even that I wish I were making a living as a writer -- it sounds like a thing that might take the fun out of writing -- but I wish I hadn't just immediately, at the age of eight, written off any thought of even bothering to take a class in creative writing, and instead grabbed onto the idea of journalism like a leaky life preserver.

Other advice I regret following:

- "Show an interest in the things boys like."

- "Don't raise your voice or make a scene." (When people tickled me against my will. When a boy who had a crush on me picked me up, over my protests, and tried to carry me around, and dropped me on my head. Etc.)

- "It's perfectly safe to accept that check in exchange for your stereo." Yeah, by the time it bounced, they weren't even in the same state any more.

- "This schedule is too hard for a freshman. As your advisor, I recommend you take out one of these sociology classes and sign up for something easy, like something from the theater department." Right. Interpretation of Literature class features in my nightmares to this day.

- "You should get a perm!"



I'm not finding that many of these. The spouse and my mother would probably say it's because I don't really take advice!



Comment to leave me a prompt! Steal jesse_the_k's prompt if you want to do the meme yourself!

20 -- copracat -- memory.
21 -- rhi -- cats.
22 -- marina - Your top three fics you've ever read. Your top three favorite fics you've ever written.
23 -- laurenthemself -- Something spooky that's happened to you
24 -- acid - Something you wish more people knew about you.
25 --
26 -- In the absence of other input, I will attempt to analyze types of wassail verses
27 --
28 --
29 --
30 --
31 --

Comments

[china_shop]

I'm not finding that many of these. The spouse and my mother would probably say it's because I don't really take advice!

Hee! ♥

[resonant]

I mean, I care much more deeply than I should about what others think of me, but I still don't want anybody telling me what to do.

[out_there]

The spouse and my mother would probably say it's because I don't really take advice!

That's probably not a bad thing.

As a question... What is the accomplishment you're most proud of? Why? (any date that suits.)

[lazaefair]

but I wish I hadn't just immediately, at the age of eight, written off any thought of even bothering to take a class in creative writing, and instead grabbed onto the idea of journalism like a leaky life preserver.

Hoooooooly shit, yeah, that was me at 15 when I was turning my thoughts toward college. Turns out you actually have to...enjoy talking to people in order to do good journalism.

Prompt: You’ve just won a Fanfic Oscar. Who do you thank in your acceptance speech and why? And what music do they play you off with?

[resonant]

> Turns out you actually have to...enjoy talking to people in order to do good journalism.

Yes! And you have to be OK with other people being mad at you! What was I thinking?

[lunabee34]

Oh man. I thought I was so cute with my perm in junior high. I was not. LOL

[resonant]

I don't know what it is about me that makes stylists want to curl my hair with rods the size of my little finger. Maybe they figure that if I wanted big Southern co'cola can curls, I'd be at home curling my own hair without their help.

[lunabee34]

Aww, my Meemaw used to say co-coler for soda. *wistful*

[pauraque]

I can think of loads of bad advice that I was offered, but not so much that I actually took. Usually I'm perfectly capable of making bad decisions without any assistance.

[resonant]

Oh, yeah, I've been offered all sorts of bad advice, from "A nice girl doesn't call a boy" to "You don't really love him if you don't take his name" to "Your child will turn into a monster if you don't provide a sibling right now."

[via_ostiense]

This is really terrible advice! Not taking it is/was the right response to this kind of advice, blech

[resonant]

Much as I love offering other people advice ... you'd think I'd learn from the overall quality of the advice other people have given me.

[jesse_the_k]

...given what a fluent writer you are, that's heartbreaking.

And then thinking that journalism would be more reliable ... but who could have predicted this future?

I liked my perm for the first week, but then there was three months of it looking like that.

[resonant]

It's really sad that we're in that future, where leveraged debt has killed journalism. I mean, I wasn't good at it, but it is a thing that needs to happen, and the world is a worse place because it isn't.