Take My Advice- Or Don’t
by: Kelsey Watt
“Don't follow any advice, no matter
how good, until you feel as deeply in your spirit as you think in your mind
that the counsel is wise.” –Joan Rivers
There is a lot of advice out there about writing and how to
write and the best way to write and blah, blah, blah. Advice is good and it’s
important to listen to what people say to you but at the end of the day it is
your decision whether or not you will listen to it. Sometimes, or maybe a lot
of the time, you will get advice that doesn't really concern you or what you
wrote. Everyone in the world, writers and non-writers, seem to have some sort
of advice regarding writing. So what I'm trying to say here is take the advice -
or don't. Take it if makes you realize something or if it changes something about
the way you viewed writing but please don't try and analyze what someone said
or wrote about your work and convince yourself that you've been doing it wrong
this whole time. You’re probably doing just fine. And please disagree with the
critics if you want to. In fact, I encourage you to disagree with them because
whether you agree or disagree, you’re thinking.
If you've just re-read one of your stories or poems and are
trying to find out where that one critic though you could improve upon- stop. Put
the story down and just breathe. I'm sure that whatever that critic said was
awesome and super intelligent and sounded as if he really knew what he was
talking about but maybe he’s wrong. Maybe he doesn't understand why you added
that one little detail. The important part is that you do. Maybe you added a
bunny in the field because your favorite stuffed animal when you were younger
was a bunny or maybe you had a bunny and it died but in your story it’s alive
again. Or maybe you just wanted to add a fucking bunny for no reason
whatsoever. That's all fine. In fact, it’s what makes literature so interesting,
why art in general is so interesting. You can have ten people read the same
story and you will most likely get ten different interpretations. You can't get
the same results if ten people watch a hockey game.
Critics
are always going to compare you to some really amazing author and you’ll
probably compare yourself to them- don't.
I know it sucks but we’ll never be able to write what Jane Austen did. But
here is the good news; that's a good thing. You shouldn't want to be like Jane
Austen or Stephen King. You can wish to have the same success as them but don't
ever try and compare yourself to them. What you have to say is just as
important as what they had to say. And it doesn't matter if you get published
and 5 million people read your book or if the only people who ever read it are
the people in your creative writing class. What you have to say is important
and you never know who it might touch or affect. The words you write may change
someone’s life. So really it’d be selfish of you to keep those words to
yourself.
I understand that my advice to you is to not take advice
(irony for the win) but I hope that you take my advice to heart. Or don't. But I
kind of hope you do.
I found this post really helpful and full of truth. I find I get easily discouraged when I think of how effortlessly other writers seem to write. I also agree that it's really frustrating when someone tells you something about what you could improve on your story, but you just can't bring yourself to change it. If it's all the same to you, I fully intend to take your advice when it comes to writing, and, in my stories, I will add all the fucking bunnies I want, too!
ReplyDeleteI love the utter paradox that is this blog entry! What you have to say is so true, and I really like the quotation you chose to use. If you agree with what someone says about your writing (or anything else, really) then great, listen to it. If you don't, though, there is no use in trying to please them--that would mean being untrue to yourself. Because there are so many ways of interpreting art, specifically writing, being true to yourself becomes all the more important. There is always going to be something in what you've written that someone doesn't agree with or like, so you have to follow your own instinct and go with what you believe is the best way.
ReplyDeleteBridget Butler