Give Yourself the Freedom to Write

If you write then you are a writer, regardless of your publications

Wake Up and Write is a regular advice column from Moms Don’t Have Time to Write. Today, we have Laura Dave — essayist, screenwriter, and author of The Last Thing He Told Me — who shared writing advice on the podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books, hosted by Zibby Owens.

“You need to create a habit out of it.”

“It doesn’t have to be that you write every single day. Some days, it’s going to work. Some days, it’s not going to work. If you sit there and you honor that time, something good will come out of it.

To that end, I really do believe that what makes you a writer is simply the act of writing, not how much you’ve been published or where you’ve been published. If you’re writing, you’re doing the job. If you’re not writing, you’re not doing the job.

Two books that have always helped are Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott and On Writing by Stephen King. I read them. I reread them.

They remind me that it’s a practice and that I need to give myself the freedom to write the story I want to write.”