#11: Writing advice and upcoming changes
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Following Emma Newman’s post on the tricky nature of offering advice to writers (especially new writers), I thought I’d offer my take on the subject. It is indeed difficult to pitch any kind of advice or feedback, even when you have the very best intentions.
In the second part of this episode I talk about the upcoming changes to Write for Your Life. As of next week, the site will have a very different homepage structure and I’ll be posting more regularly. It’s all very exciting and I hope it’s the start of a new and marvellous adventure.
Have a listen to the podcast and let me know what you think. If you have any questions, feel free to use the comments section below. Thanks for your support, as always.
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Concerning the first part of the podcast:
I have often read useless or conflicting advice and felt worse for it. Einstein said: “Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.” When I first came across this quote, I realized that I had been reading far more advice than I ever used. Sound advice (the kind dispensed here) is useful in varying degrees to each reader relative to how much the reader uses his or her own mind. In other words, instead of reading enough advice to take up an entire day, and thereby collecting a hundred dissenting opinions (and little else), limit your intake of advice to an amount that you can use right away, and then use it! Taking action will put you in a position to judge whether or not the advice has merit. As you put more and more advice to practical use, you will learn the difference between bad and good advice, and even good and excellent advice. And then you’ll have some advice of your own to give.
Thanks, Iain, for your good advice and even better intentions.
Hi James and thanks for the comment. You’re absolutely right and as I say in the podcast, all writers have their own way of doing things and some writing advice will be useful to one person and not the next. I think the key is to not claim your word on any subject to be the final one.
Thanks for such kind words too!