All advice is suspect. I'm not suggesting you break all the so-called rules of creativity you've collected. Only that every tip can be counteracted with its opposite. And some advice is just plain bad ...

For four decades, an English professor at San Jose State University has run a fiction contest for a single opening sentence to "the worst of all possible novels." He has decided to retire the contest.

When it comes to recognizing good literature, you've got all kinds of prizes - the National Book Award, the Nobel, the Booker. But when it comes to recognizing truly bad writing, there's the ...