When you're told how to write, don't listen. When you're told how to make your art, don't listen. To those who with good intentions attempt to steer you toward the right way of writing, turn deaf. Those who tell you that you have an odd plot, characters that can't possibly exist, descriptions that are ludicrous, flip a finger. Even to this blog, don't listen. To what I say, don't listen. Hole up, tell everyone to fuck off, and create, create, create. Create the way YOU want to. Why? Because YOU want to create this way. Because YOU say it's right. Because only YOU can be the judge of your own work, nobody else. YOU know when you produce shit or something good. YOU have the ability to distinguish between something that stinks and something that sings. Everything else is mote. Everyone else's advice is bad nostrum. Bad juju. Bad kaka.
Feel. Feel your words. When you write them, feel them. How do they feel to you? To YOU? Not to your uncle Joe, not to Sarah from your writer's group, not even to your readers. How does it feel to YOU? Does it satisfy YOU? Do YOU like it? If not, fix it. Only YOU can decide when to stop fixing it and to let go. Only YOU have this power, nobody else. Not the critics, not fellow writers, nobody. Nobody has this right. It's YOUR art.
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