8 things you don’t need to be a writer
A lot of writing advice tells you what you must do to be a writer. Here’s some things you don’t need to be a good writer:
- An expensive notepad
Real writers have cheap notepads, because they are often poorly paid and go through a lot of notepads. Attractive notepads are great, but they will not make you a writer.
2. A beautiful antique writing desk
A nice desk is great. It can make writing a joy. But if you can’t write without a beautiful desk, you don’t want to be a writer but an interior design blogger. Get yourself over to Apartment Therapy.
3. Complete silence and tranquility
Silence is a luxury. If you can’t write without everyone around you being quiet, you will struggle to be a writer. And nowadays you can get really good headphones and a white noise app if you need them.
4. A room of one’s own
Virginia Woolf was a genius, but she was also a rich genius. Many people do not have an entire room of their own.
That’s OK. All you need is to find somewhere you can sit and write. That can be your bed with headphones on, on a bus, or on the sofa in a shared living room.
5. To get up early
You know those people who tell you they get up at 4am every day and write? They are morning people.
I am not a morning person. Proust was also not a morning person. There is no need to torture yourself by getting up at 4am if it doesn’t work for you.
There is no correlation between being a morning person and being a successful writer.
6. To write every day
Some days are off days, when you’ve worked 16 hours straight and you want to sleep. When the flat upstairs has flooded into your living room and everything is drowned. When you just don’t feel like it. Be nice to yourself.
7. To do anything people tell you you ‘must do’
Some writing advice is great. Some writing advice is a pyramid scheme. Most ‘you must do this one thing to be a writer’ pieces contain useful pointers, but suffer from their desire for a catchy headline.
The only thing you have to do to write is write.
8. To be alone
The myth of the lonely creative genius is particularly damaging to women. You can be a happy, healthy writer who has strong close relationships with other people. You can be a mother or a father. You can also be a hermit.
But if you don’t want to, you don’t have to. Which is true of anything to do with writing, except the actual writing.
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