What is the writing advice you wish someone had told you when you started writing?
I have three:
1) No one can write your story the way you can. That book idea? That poem that’s niggling at the back of your brain? Write it. If you don’t, no one else will.
“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.“
Toni Morrison
2) Write because it brings you joy! Writing, editing, querying, and publishing can be a long and exhausting journey. But if you really love doing it, it’ll make that process bearable (and enjoyable).
3) Stick with it. Writing, editing, querying, and publishing can be a long and exhausting process. It may feel at times like you are gathering only rejection and failure. There will be times you want to give up and throw in the towel. Don’t. Keep on trying, and if you fail, then try again. I recently had a poem accepted after over 40 rejections. Had I given up after 5, 10, or even 40 rejections, that poem would not have found its home. You never know when you’ll get lucky and get that acceptance.
“By the time I was fourteen the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replaced the nail with a spike and went on writing.”
Stephen King
What would your advice be to new writers? Add it in the comments.
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