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What to do When the Person Not Taking Your Advice is You

11 May

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Seriously…some days I hear things come out of my mouth that make me feel sooooooooo stupid; yesterday was one of those days. My oldest son and his partner came to visit for Mother’s Day and they brought his partners brother along. Ryan is a budding writer who really wants to make his living at it one day. He has expressed an interest in meeting me, the seasoned writer in the family, for some time and yesterday it finally happened. It’s interesting because Ryan had hoped to gleam some writing wisdom from me, and maybe he did, but so did I.

We moved about a month ago and for some strange reason I hadn’t seemed to move my desire to write with me. I think that with all the packing and moving I just had excused my way out of writing. I kept telling myself that I would get “back into it” but as of yesterday I was still procrastinating. When the boys showed up I realized that Ryan’s desire was strong and I felt an obligation to offer some solid advice. So what do I hear coming out of my mouth? I looked that boy straight in the eye and said, “you have to write every day.” And then I waited for lightening to strike me…….

The advice I gave Ryan was solid…you do have to write every day. My problem was that I realized, as soon as I said it, that I hadn’t been doing so myself. I had used out move as an excuse to let my work fall by the way-side and now I was having tons of problems getting back in. That happens when you let the writing go for a period of time…it’s like a muscle and if you don’t work it every day it gets stiff; I was stiff to the point of becoming Jai the Statue.

So I went to bed last night feeling like a failure in that I wasn’t actually doing the thing I had told young Ryan he should do in order to be a writer. I wallowed in self-pity for about a half hour and then it occurred to me…I can change this. So here I am this morning, striving to be the good mentor I wish to be, and I’m writing. The advice I gave Ryan was solid…as a writer you must write every single day, even if it’s just a little. It’s really good advice…I’m going to take it…how about you?

© The Writer’s Advice, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

 
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Posted by on May 11, 2023 in Writing

 

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