10 pieces of writing wisdom.

One of the things writers often become preoccupied with is advice from other writers. 

We love to read bon mots from famous, usually long dead authors that tell us to never use adverbs, or to only write before 5am, or to only write about our own lives, or to never write about ourselves.

But does this advice actually help us become better writers?

In the Story Course, the writing “advice” I offer is centered around creating your independent, ever-deepening, and healthy writing practice. I teach you how to study writing and improve your craft, while also developing a healthy relationship to mystery and your creative source.

Here are 10 tidbits I’ve pulled out of the first sections of the Story Course.

It’s not about what you must do. It’s about how.

1. Your writing is a vocation: never underestimate what you are called to do.

2. I recommend that you go to the same space every time you write. Ritual is very good for your writing.

3. Being a good writer means that we must relate to our own work with curiosity, so that we can find out who it is, what it wants to be.

4. Art happens in a mysterious part of the mind. It’s the same part that creates dreams.

5. The struggle of writing is learning how to disengage from your “normal” life in order to give yourself the space to write.

6. Give yourself permission to write freely, and it will begin to feel exhilarating.

7. Trust that when you create the space for images and words to arrive, your mind will give them to you.

8. Remind yourself that you don’t want to write about the scene; you want to write the scene itself.

9. Your value as a writer does not depend on how many pages you write, or how fast you can write them.

10.A successful writing session is one where you show up to go through the portal.

Are you ready to go through the portal? Sign up for the Story Course now.

xo,

Photo credit: Claire Morgan on Pexels