About Writing: It’s Only Your Opinion

If you’re a writer (and maybe even if you’re not), it’s worth following AdviceToWriters on Twitter. There’s also a website.

Recently, he tweeted a quote from Jeffrey Davis:

“Write despite what you feel about your work. It’s only your opinion.”

That one made me blink at first, and festered in my brain for a while. I wasn’t sure if I agreed with it or not. I think there’s an argument that you should be passionate about what you’re writing, but it’s always hard to divorce yourself from a script and take a more balanced view of it.

Making you ill?
This freaks me out

Should you keep working on something that you hate?

I don’t know the answer to that. But I read the full interview, and unsurprisingly it put the quote in a more meaningful context.

“The advice I give to new writers is to never judge a first draft … New writers look at the first pass at a project, find problems and then degrade themselves. “

Graham Linehan echoes this sentiment when he says a first draft is just toilet paper. If you’re not editing and rewriting your work, you’re not a writer.

“I believe it was Lawrence Kasdan who said that being a writer is like having homework for the rest of your life. That is some of the best advice I’ve ever heard.”

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