I was originally thinking to do a separate post about what podcasts I’m listening to (there are a lot), but then I thought I should instead do a post about all the pop culture I’ve been consuming in the month, hence my new blog feature: Pop Culture Brief.
So, for the first edition of the Pop Culture Brief, here is all the pop culture I’ve been loving or hating:
To all you authors out there, here’s a little advice that will help you so much.
Do not write for other people. Yes, this sounds like classic writing advice, but I’m going to go deeper into it. Because I realized today what that actually means.
When you write for other people, you find yourself constantly being anxious over how they’ll perceive it. As you’re writing you’ll be looking at it like “there’s no way anyone will ever like this.” You’ll point out every flaw and that just makes writing a burden. You’ll get writer’s block or quit writing altogether, because it’s just not fun anymore.
So instead of doing that, just…turn off that part of your brain that points out the mistakes and tells you people won’t like it. Save that for later. It might be hard to do this, but you’ve got to understand that you’re telling this story for yourself, and that at this point it doesn’t matter if it sucks or not. That’s for your other drafts.
Enjoy the writing. Smile when you make some cheesy joke, even if you know you’ll have to delete it later. Write out the parts that you likeabout the story, whether or not they matter to the plot.
Writing for other people has its place, but that’s for after you’ve written for yourself.
