Best Advice Ever

Writers get a lot of unsolicited, conflicting advice on the road to publication: Write what you know. Research, research, research. Talk about your work in progress. Don’t say a word to anyone. You need an agent. You don’t need an agent. Self-publish. Don’t self-publish. Write like your heroes. Find your voice. Write 1500 words a day. Write one sentence a day. Take days off. Never take days off.Small wonder the most oft-repeated bon mot is “write drunk, edit sober.” All the advice is enough to drive anyone to drink. The best advice I’ve gotten? You do you. Whatever it is that drives you to that chair, that notebook, that laptop, that’s what you should do. Do you need to learn craft? Yes, if you want to write for the commercial market. Every genre has its rules and you need to adhere to them as a debut author. The rest is up to you. What works for me may not be right for you. What works for you may not be right for me. And that’s okay. Find what fits your lifestyle, your experience, and the stories you want to tell the way you want to tell them. Experiment. Play. You do you. 

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