Well I certainly needed this kick up the backside today. Take heed fellow would-be-writers!
Would you have any words of advice for the would-be-writers out there?
Start today. Write. Finish what you start. Submit what you finish. Repeat. Don’t get caught up in the ‘someday I’m going to do that’ trap. Don’t blog and tell yourself that it puts you on the road to being a published fiction writer. It just makes you a blogger. Get your stories down on paper now. Don’t wait. The stories that you can and would write today are irreplaceable. The story you will write at 15 can’t wait until you are 30. It won’t be the same story. It will be gone. Don’t write a lot of stuff in other people’s worlds. You are not a cookie press pushing out dough into a pre-set shape. You’re a writer. If you don’t write your own characters and worlds now, today, no one ever will.
If you don’t write them now, your characters will shrivel up and die, unknown, unread, unmourned, and it will be ALL YOUR FAULT!
(Isn’t guilt a wonderful motivator?)
Robin Hobb in an interview at Grinding to Valhalla
~stoytelling nomad~
storytelling nomad 
nice advice from hobb! haha..
She’s pretty sharp Miss Hobb!
Lol. Love this!
What I love most is that it worked! High Five!
“If you don’t write your own characters and worlds now, today, no one ever will.”
Now THAT’S a kick up the backside alright! Love it.
I’ll say! :)
“If you don’t act on it now, your creations and creatures will starve, shrivel and die. When you are older, they will be naught but a hollow husk, a charred corpse of a memory. And the only one grieving will be you..”
And grieve I would! Well put Joakim.
Ouch. Harsh but fair.
Indeed. I have to say, I think blogging can be excellent writing practice and a great exercise to promote discipline with writing. But it can also become another procrastination tool. I hope I can find a balance!
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Guilt is a very good motivator unless like me it sends you into stubborness. I’m gonna ignore my stubborness on this one and give in to the guilt. :-)
Guilt will often paralyse me, which is unhelpful. It’s the thought that one day I might regret not doing something or making the most of an opportunity that gets me going. I feel too bad already for my future self that didn’t bring those characters to life, so I’m gonna scrap her future path and make sure that doesn’t happen ;)
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Wonderful reminder! Thank you Katy!
No problem!
great advice!
She’s a smart cookie that Robin Hobb!
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