WIth a whole lot of old & even some new school writing advice it is strikingly clear the person giving the advice never had (or hasn’t had) to be responsible for the caretaking and emotional support of others, and what that means in terms of curating energy and time.
So here is some of my writing advice:
1. Be kind to yourself. Sometimes you won’t get the work done you want to do because of circumstances outside your control or just because you are so tired. It’s okay. Really, it’s okay. Don’t beat up on yourself. You’re doing your best.
1. Be kind to yourself. Sometimes you won’t get the work done you want to do because of circumstances outside your control or just because you are so tired. It’s okay. Really, it’s okay. Don’t beat up on yourself. You’re doing your best.
2. Talent exists, sure, but often it is a word used to create judgements about intrinsic worth. Don’t listen to those voices that want to judge intrinsic worth.
Practice, skill, craft: these are all words that imo frame the act of writing in a more productive way.
Practice, skill, craft: these are all words that imo frame the act of writing in a more productive way.
3. Especially if you are in a situation where you are being told by others that it is selfish for you to write or to invest energy in your creative output (when instead you could be caring for or curating emotional labor for others),
BE FUCKING SELFISH, my peeps.
BE FUCKING SELFISH, my peeps.
4. I’ll taken sheer bloody-minded stubbornness and dogged persistence over externally granted labels of talent any day.
5. Hang in there. No one knows what the outcome will be of any project. And I guarantee that every voice is unique (even if differentially respected). The art you create can’t be made in quite that way by someone else.
6. The process that works for Writer A may or may not work for Writer B. The process that worked for you on Project S may not work on Project Y. There is no correct process. There’s what works for you, at this moment, on this day, for this project.
7. The best way (and in fact the only way I know) to improve as a writer is to do the work. And then do more work. And then more again.
8. You will walk this path not knowing what lies ahead. No one knows. Go for it.
9. And in reality, the very skills and practice of caretaking and emotional labor, which so often are dismissed by many as value-less or mundane, as nothing worth considering, ALSO help you as a writer and artist. Take them in, use them. See them as the strengths they are.
10. So many people are so tired & feel so unseen. The day-to-day struggles are real, & life would grind to a halt without this endless & often unappreciated caretaking work.
The space you make for your art (however large or small) matters as part of this work.
The space you make for your art (however large or small) matters as part of this work.
