Writing Advice

A couple of days ago, I was listening to Mike Stackpole’s podcast, The Secrets (The newsletter is worth the $1/issue, as well), and he gave one of the best pieces of advice about writing I have ever heard. If you want to hear exactly what he said, you should check out the podcast (Episode #24: Time to be Writing).

Basically, he said that when you have an idea, don’t think about how long it will take, just WRITE IT DOWN. This may not seem like a huge deal, but it is. If you have to run into Starbucks, grab a napkin, and steal a pen, then that is what you will do. People have a tendency to want to write in large blocks of time, but it usually doesn’t work out that way. Besides, large chunks of time probably aren’t when you are at your most creative. You get inspired by interacting with the world around you, observing it.

When I heard this, it clicked, this is what it means to be a full time writer. A full time writer isn’t someone who sits down and writes for forty hours a week, its someone who sets writing to be a priority. What all of this means is always being there for the story.