Just Write

I belong to a few writers groups.  Ones filled with writers of all ages and all levels of experience.  There are published and unpublished, traditionally published and self-published.  There are those who only write fanfiction and those who write only original work.  I read their posts and listen to their thoughts and find myself unrepresented. I am on many levels a ‘new’ writer, I’ve never been successfully published, though I did have my very first book traditionally published at nineteen.  As a ‘new’ writer I should see myself in other writers out there.  I should find their questions familiar, instead I find them confusing because they ask questions whose answers seem obvious to me.  They ask how to develop characters; they ask for permission to create their worlds how they see fit. They worry that THEIR own emotions might affect their writing.  They worry so much about what everyone thinks they forget that writing is only for you, the writer.  These are YOUR words, YOUR worlds.  Each character you create you must embody and become.  You must FEEL their pain or you can’t write it.  You must fall in love with who they are supposed to love.  Everything your character experiences and feels you must feel right there with them. 

Don’t ask if you have permission to do something, you are the creator of these worlds and only you have the right to them.  No one else has a say or an opinion that matters until the words have all been written.  The first draft is all yours and it’s precious because of that.  Don’t let anyone tell you how you should be writing YOUR story.  Don’t ask permission to write.  Write because you can’t breathe unless you do.  Write because it is YOUR world and your words.  Just write.