Take My Advice- Or Don’t

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.