Worst writing advice?

Hey!

What's the worst writing advice you have been given?

📚Writing classes

When I was back at university, I was sat in a university seminar talking about each other's work. It was part of a course on self-publishing but we were currently at the stage of workshopping our creative pieces.

I was sat with a bloke who had written an opening to a Fantasy novel. I won't say people's work is bad because I believe everyone who is brave enough to write and put their work out for feedback must have some quality to it. However, his piece was 5k words long, of which 80% was telling me about the world. No characters, no plot, nothing. Just world.

Whilst I like the fantasy worlds in the novels I read, they are a bonus and not the entirety. A few of us mentioned this to him. I have learnt that when giving a critique, tell them what you think isn't working and NEVER tell them how they should change it. Let them decide the solution because they will know what best fits their writing.

He refused to listen to us, stating that "he had spent a lot of time on his world and it deserved to be there." I am confused about this and would love some help understanding it. Whilst at the time I felt we were valid in the point we were making: info-dumping your setting at the beginning of the novel most likely will turn a reader away, was there something that I didn't see?

🗺️Don't info-dump your world

The advice against info-dumping is good I think, but am I missing something? I feel if you have spent a lot of time on your world, you can feed it in when it is necessary. By doing it all at the beginning it isn't a novel anymore but an encyclopedia.

Thanks,
Fin :)