Challenge Nine

#TipTuesday - Three writing/life tips.

*~*~*~*~*

Uh...never eat yellow snow?  The early bird catches the worm?  What goes around comes around?

No, not the type of tips you were looking for?  Dang, guess I'll have to think a little harder.

Okay...okay...I've got some.

1) "They're more like guidelines than actual rules."

*hides from my editor*

If there was ever an emoji to describe me, it would be the little, smiling devil.  See, the horns are there to keep my halo on straight.   😈

Unless you've been living in your own little utopia, you will have discovered that the professional writing world is cray-cray to the nth degree.   They have rules, upon rules, built on more rules., and some of the rules are insane!!!

I once sat with an agent who said;

"First, I want you to take all the I's out."

And I replied;

"It's a story in first person."

...Clearly, this guy was fond of the old cliche rule, 'don't write in first POV it's immature.'

If the Brontë sisters can write in first person so can I...#justsayin.

My point is rules and creativity don't mix.  Writing is as much an art as painting, acting, and filmmaking.  Yes, it's good to know the rules.  In fact if I were you guys I'd learn them all, in detail, and then find the exception, because there will be a list of exceptions.  Then sit down at your computer, rip them up, and write what your heart wants to write.

I just read an excerpt from a hugely popular YA novel.  It's the first book in this author's current series and they are already a NYT bestseller, published by a traditional big five house, and looking like a rising star.

First sentence I read had TWO 'ly' adverbs that were completely unnecessary.  Few lines down, another, and another, and...whoa this person is my soulmate!!! I admire their love for adverbs. 

You see, it's not about how you can stick to the rules, or how well you impress the haughty elite.  Bottom line...it's how you tell a story.

Author Side Note: I just want to clarify that I'm not trying to stoke controversy (or am I). It is certain - as the run rises - that this challenge will be filled with fabulous Wattpad writers listing some of the above rules I've just publicly bashed. Note, it's not the rule I'm against it's the suffocation of individuality and creativity for the sake of standard. I've just read an amazing article by Robert Benson on the exact same topic this morning.

This quote from his article summed up my above thoughts perfectly. Here he advises how you guys - budding writers - should take advice.

"Pay more or less close attention to us. For what we tell you to do is only what we have come to discover will work for us. What we advise you to do may not, in fact, work for you." - R Benson.

2) "Love is not a feeling it's an act of will."

My mother croons this nugget of head pickling wisdom to me most days. It never really struck me as useful until fairly recently.

Regardless of your faith, religion, community, or identity, we as humans respond positively to one energy...Love.

Now, I'm gonna go deep here guys. Suit up and secure the breathing apparatus, these waters are bottomless.

I doubt my mother was talking about romantic love. A type of Love which is more desire than useful energy. What she was talking about is in the the nitty gritty, intimate space between humans. It's an unspoken, taken for granted law, that the action of loving sustains life. It makes things happen for the good, and holds back hopelessness long enough to fight darkness.

Choosing to love someone isn't just about friendships, relationships, or being a generally good person. The action of loving often requires discipline, pain, and self-sacrificing behaviour. Sometimes it requires us to hurt that person in a way that helps them grow up and be a better version of themselves. Often love being auctioned upon ourselves by another can cause great struggle within our psyche, as we wrestle with feelings of guilt, shame, and even question our own deservingness to be loved...especially when someone continues to love us after we hurt them.

The act of love can, in all instances, cross language barriers, cultural differences , religious intolerance, and racial lines. It's the only energy that can be expressed in feelings, in words, in thoughts, in gestures, physically, and spiritually. It's the only entity powerful enough to dispel the ultimate Achilles heal of humanity - fear.

So, it's my valuable tip to you, to seek Love, whether you understand it or not. And remember; loving yourself first and foremost is the cornerstone in being a vessel to expend it toward others.

3) "Only a true friend would be that truly honest."

You want to be a writer? Really? Well here's a sage price of advice...find your exit buddy.

No...not your exit-from-writing buddy...but your exit-from-this-craziness buddy.

As I highlighted in numero uno...writer life is cray-cray, man.

You've got the professional industry side, and then you've got the reader market side, and then you've got all the caffeine addicted, insomniac middle-grounders, who will be spewing conflicting opinions at you from every corner of the Internet.

FIND YOUR EXIT BUDDY.

Having a friend, or small group of friends, who are writers in the industry will literally save your sanity. They will become your mafia family when the horrible criticisms come flying, and they'll also be your own personal drill sergeants when they comb through your recent drafts. This balance is essential. If you want to write you'll need an honest, likeminded friend, who can tell you that your story sucks without making you feel like pulling - as we Sherlockians call it - a Reichenback Fall.

Love them, cherish them, put them in your inner circle of trust. You'll need each other to survive this borderline psychotic lifestyle.

Literally...we all have little characters running around our heads, screaming at us to listen to them. That is why writers all look like they've just checked out of Shutter Island post first draft writing process. We don't just hear voices, we have tiny personalities dictating their life stories to us inside our brains...and no one can see them???!!!

If that's not a good enough reason to secure an exit buddy, I don't know what is?!