Writing Advice for the Ages - Follow Your Heart

You've set up your writing space. You have followed all those suggestions from the experts. It's a quiet spot, there's a little soft music playing in the background, a candle for inspiration and you have even banned the entire family from requesting your attention during your "set writing time". You sit down at the keyboard, fingers on the keys and…nothing. Well not nothing exactly but everything except writing. What are you doing wrong? You've followed all that advice.

Well, maybe that's your problem….you followed all THAT advice. We as writers are subjected to the advice of our peers on an almost daily basis. In fact, the writing profession is the one profession where advice can be dished out haphazardly because after all, who's going to dispute it. It is because of this onslaught of advice that many beginning writers find themselves embarking upon a career that seems to be more of a Zen vision quest then a writing career. So what do you do? Which advice do you follow? Well here's a brand new concept in writing advice…follow your heart.

Writing is a lonely profession. It's done alone and many times in the end we end up having to point out that our pieces were published so that people will know what we've done. So how much sense does it make to follow the advice of a lot of other writers who have already discovered what they really should be advising, writing is a "you" thing. So what does this mean well….

Find a space where YOU are comfortable. Write where you want to even if it's in the middle of a crowd of screaming football fans.

Write when YOU want to. I write when the fancy strikes me. Sometimes at night, sometimes during the day many times at intervals of fifteen minutes at a time. It's your time. Set it aside if that works for you, if it doesn't, don't.

Use whatever format is comfortable for you. If it is easier for you to drag out your old royal typewriter then do it. All that talk about time management is wonderful but when it all comes down to it if you are not inspired what good is it going to do you to manage your time.

Finally, be comfortable. So many of our peers give out advice about what to do, when to do it and how to do it that we tend to forget that the whole reason we write for a living is because we enjoy it. It is easy to get lost in the sea of good intentions of our friends in the writing community but the key in the end is that writing truly is a individualized profession so why not do just that, stay individualized. Look through all that advice offered by our peers but in the end follow your heart.