Very useful. Thanks! You demystified a lot for me. You also underscored how important it is to get tips from sources with real world experience, as opposed to some well-intentioned blogger/scroller parroting the latest factoid they read on an iWatch while scarfing down a burrito on the crosstown bus.
I’m baffled by how much trust I willingly invest in "experts" claiming authority in some areas, but not in others. Take, for example, the area of writing (specifically, word count*):
I’m certainly savvy enough (cynical enough?) to know that if my doctor diagnoses me, I should squelch the urge to fall down that bottom-less WebMD google-hole, and invest all the online articles I click on with the same amount of authority as I do my own doctor. So if I don’t do that with my health, why would I do that with my writing?
I'll be a lot more discerning from now on when it comes to writing advice, because info gleaned from so-called writing experts trying to pass off their "2 min read"/word-count/infotainment post as FACTS is not a writer offering me facts about flash fiction, but fiction about flash "facts."
*Speaking of word-count: I checked. The above comment clocks in at a respectably obscene ONE-NINETY-NINE!** Just one word shy of a WHOPPING 2-0-0! So, technically, I believe this now qualifies as...
FLASH-NON-FICTION, yes?
** 199 does not include the footnote above. Or this footnote. Or... oh forget it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a burrito to eat, and this is my stop.
