SPOONIE WRITER: IGNORING WRITING ADVICE
I have been a writer now for longer than I care to admit. We're talking decades. This August will be my 20 year Authorversary and I'm still kinda blown away by the fact that I'm still doing this, enjoying it, and still writing books. I've not made it in the sense that I live completely off the sales of my books, but enough that I have readers who like what I write, which to me is the main thing.
I think I've been making these spoonie writer advice pieces for about ten years now. I could look up the date, but it's not that important. My point is that yes, I know the title says to ignoring writing advice, and then I'm here, giving you the same. I've been wanting to write this one for a while because after my one about how writing every day doesn't apply (found here), I realised that there are lots of pieces of writing advice that end up seemingly dismissing people who are unable to do the things they're professing.
At the end of the day, everyone approaches writing differently. You'll have people who swear that you should never use adverbs. You'll have people who will tell you until they're blue in the fact that you have to have a set routine and if you break that routine even once, you'll be ruining all your hard work. The truth is, a lot, and I mean, a lot, of writing advice is subjective. When it comes to finding something that works for you, as I've said a million times, you have to do a lot of trial and error, taking this advice from one person and another from someone else. You will find a way that works for you, but it won't be easy and it won't be a case of just doing the same as insert famous author here.
But when it comes to spoonies and those writers with disabilities, it's really hard to constantly see advice thrown out and know that if it did work for you, it's impossible because you literally can not do it. I've seen a lot of AI talk in the socials lately, about how those of us with disabilities and/or chronic illness can only write/publish etc if we use AI. Which is so stupid I don't even know where to start.
If you, like me, have been writing for a while, then you know you're capable of doing the work without the need for AI. If you're not like me and just starting out, let me make something clear: you don't need AI to do the work for you. It might be hard, it might take you literal years, but you will get there, and there is no time limit on publishing, on writing or anything else like that.
When it comes down to it, spoonies and those with disabilities have been making writing work for us, and ignoring writing advice for a long time. We are, usually, people who know how our bodies work better than anyone else, so we know what we're capable of. I know it's scary when you're sitting down to write your first book, but if this is something you want to do, you can do it. Don't restrict yourself to a set of rules that don't even fully apply in every situation. Yes you can learn the rules so you know when and how to break them, but they're also not hard and fast. If you're looking for permission to write, to ignore the writing advice thrown at you, then you've got it. Now keep writing!
Any questions? Lemme know in the comments!
Follow Joey to be kept up to date with the latest news regarding Joey and her books.
