A WORD OF ADVICE TOO MANY

I’ve been catching up on my reading today. I’ve looked at several magazines and websites, all about writing, and they all have, more or less, the same content—advice. The advice they offer is different, but the pitch is all the same—Read this, and you’ll get published. Even the most respectable publications are guilty of this blatant appeal to writers’ frustration and desperation. Anyone and everyone who has ever had a word in print (and some who haven’t?) feel they have the authority to offer advice in this area. And why shouldn’t they, because they know people will read it. Yes, it’s good to hear, or read, the voice of experience. We should never be so proud or think we know too much to take advice, especially from those who really are in the know. But there’s just so much of it. If one were to actually listen to every Never do this or You must always do that, a writer wanting to “break through” would never even attempt it. We all know that there are exceptions to most every rule, and, of course, it does help to at least know the most important rules, but the cacophony of voices out there giving their expertise is deafening. It can make one feel like, I can never meet all these so-called requirements, so why bother? Well, I too have a piece of advice for all you writers out there: Stop trying to heed everyone’s advice already. Except mine, of course.