Write what you like

There are tons of pithy sayings writers usually hear when they're starting out. "Kill your darlings." "Show, don't tell." "Write what you know." Most who are starting out don't really know what these idiomatic pieces of advice actually mean. Even experienced writers have trouble cracking the code on some of these sayings. Ultimately, you can't really distill sound advice down to a 3-word phrase. Sometimes, it's better to rephrase this advice. For instance, when I tell people to write what they know, what I'm really saying is to "write what you like." Passion makes it easy. "If you could speak on something for an hour without prepared notes, what would it be?" is an icebreaker question that uncovers your interests and hobbies. It also answers my "write what you like" motto. Have you ever picked up an interest that suddenly sucked an entire weekend away as you dove down the rabbit holes that uncovered the depth of this hobby? Did you spend...
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3 reasons why you shouldn’t pick sides

Just like everyone has a bellybutton, we all have opinions. However, if the 2016 election has taught us anything, it’s that most people’s opinions seem to be on extreme ends of the spectrum. I know you can’t please all the people all of the time, but as writers who want to sell books, we should at least try to remain unbiased. Sure, our beliefs will usually leak through into our writing. If we leave it at a subconscious level, this amount of bias isn’t too bad. When a writer tries to take a purposeful stance on something via their fiction, most of the time it falls flat and fails to convince anyone to change their mind. Here are three reasons why writers should try to be neutral in their narrative: Opinionated writing appears preachy I get it. The world is a mess, and we all want to blame someone for it. In these trying times, it’s easy for writers to mount their...
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