Writing In Life

Advice on writerly success almost always includes exhortations to write daily, to remain focused, to give up other things in order to keep the butt in the chair. There is much truth in those words, but taken to extremes, can become quite dysfunctional.

New writers in particular are vulnerable to the negative judgments wrapped up in those pieces of guidance, worrying if one can be a “real” writer if not behaving as if writing is the most important thing in life.

It’s a tremendously destructive m...