OPEN THREAD
Writing Advice For Your Younger Self
Highlights from our May open thread
Just the other day, I gave a writing student of mine some advice: “Don’t worry so much about publishing,” I told her. “First, focus on writing the best thing you can write.”
As soon as I said it, I realized this was the very same advice a graduate school mentor once gave me. When she said it to me, however, I wanted to scream. How annoying! How easy for her, a published writer, to say!
Still, I stand by it, and am glad aspiring-writer-me was told this, and glad she didn’t actually scream in that university office so long ago. I’m also glad my student didn’t scream at me the other day, but I would have understood if she did. It can be hard to really take in advice, even when — especially when! — you need it the most.
That’s why for this month’s Open Thread we asked you what advice you wish you could give yourself back when you were just starting out as a writer. Below, we’ve highlighted some of the wisdom that really stood out. And you can check out the full list in the original thread. Thanks to everyone who participated.
— Amy Shearn, Creator Support @ Medium
Write as if you are talking to someone and you wish for them to know about what’s going on. — Paul Bucklaw
The more you read, the more you write. — Brittany Alexa
Don’t worry so much about what other people think. Don’t write for money and followers. Write for ideas, information, learning, and personal growth. — Nora Lyn Larch
The best advice I would give my young self is to be much more open to advice and the experience of others while also being much more discerning as to how much of that advice to take and from which sources. — Kurt Dillon
classic novelists inspired me to write. but i would just tell my young self to just live life, experience everything and absorb your surroundings. — Fifi Leigh
You’ve got to learn how to write a good headline. No two ways about it. You will be sh*t at this until you’re not. Keep practicing. — Nova Richards🪐
Keep an idea journal. Write down any idea, from creative to observational to tangential. It’s all related to your creative process. — The Art School of Life
Everyone’s writing gets better with editing. Everyone. — Mhstuart
Don’t worry about anyone reading your journals when you die. Rest in knowing that you left some really juicy, scandalous fodder for anyone — most likely family — to read. — Karen Wettstein
Get started now! Stop judging. It’s okay to follow your gut. Turn away from those who try to discourage you. — C. Dorian Carlone
