Angry Writing Advice About Writing Advice.

Diary of Being a Writer; Month 62. Swearing ahead.

A cat and a couple of books on writing.

I love learning. One of the things I love about being a writer is that I know that if I don’t want it to, the learning will never stop.

And part of the learning is reading all sorts of books, including ones on how to write. Listening to podcasts on writing, watching YouTube videos on writing, doing writing courses. Courses on how to write in various genres or on various techniques. And of course actually writing.

What I need to ask right now is can male authors stop giving the advice to “write every day”?

And quite frankly, if they then follow that up with ‘if you aren’t writing, you aren’t a writer’, well fuck them.

Some of us really don’t have the time or energy to write every day. So fuck off with your perfect life and your perfect mental health, Mr. Man.

I do not believe we need to be told what constitutes being a ‘real’ writer by people who are not carrying around health issues, mental health issues, the emotional load of a family or households that take time and energy.

Writing every day might be the dream that may happen once the kids move out of home, we retire or we actually get a break in the physical or mental health front…