No One Has The Right To Tell You To Give Up On Your Writing Dreams

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Abstract

ving up?</p><p id="b7d2">Then, I realised this commenter isn’t alone: there are scores of articles out there telling you when as a writer you should just admit defeat, and frankly, now I’m furious too.</p><h2 id="a087">You never need anyone’s permission to give up.</h2><p id="950d">Perhaps you’ve realised you never really enjoyed writing but just liked the sound of being a published author? Perhaps the tough cycle of submitting work and getting rejections outweighs the excitement of maybe one day being published? Perhaps it’s become clear you simply value other parts of your life more than writing.</p><p id="5196">Perhaps you don’t even need a reason, because the truth is none of this tells me anything about your value as a person: the only thing it tells me is that you’ve chosen to stop writing.</p><h2 id="457a">It follows you never need anyone’s permission to keep going.</h2><p id="860b">Writing continues to be my favourite activity regardless of how successful I am; it both soothes and excites me at the same time. I once measured my resting heart rate during and after writing and the former was significantly lower. The excitement of learning a new skill also floods me with light like a snapped glowstick.</p><p id="26e3">Maybe you have different reasons for writing: that’s none of my business. The fact is, you’re the only person who can make a good decision about whether or not to give up on writing. Keeping going does not equate to “delusions of grandeur”: the only thing it says about you is that you’re a person who’s chosen to keep writing.</p><h2 id="5b7c">You don’t even

Options

need these black-and-white statements.</h2><p id="39cf">Blindly moving forward or completely giving up are never your only options: you can also pivot your approach depending on your goals.</p><p id="6a01">Maybe you explore different ways to invest in your progress as a writer such as taking courses or investing in an editor. Perhaps you decide to give up trying to make money from your writing and write only for pleasure. On the other hand, maybe you decide to take on commercial copywriting and give up writing for fun.</p><p id="e272">Maybe you even realise you‘ve actually just been writing in the wrong genre for you. The writer and podcaster <a href="https://kirstenoliphant.com/">Kirsten Oliphant</a>, for example, gave up writing after she couldn’t get her literary fiction published but began self-publishing romance novels years later; now she’s making insane money selling her books.</p><p id="c0df">It’s okay to adapt to your circumstances.</p><p id="e757">All this feels feel particularly pertinent to me right now as I navigate the world of fiction writing for the first time. I am learning as I go and I expect my journey to be similar to the time I decided to learn how to ride a bike, aged 30, in a foreign country, on unpaved roads.</p><p id="c752">In short, I expect I’m in for a few bruises, but I’ve discovered that for me, writing fiction is electrifying. So even if no one wants to publish my fiction, I plan on still finding a way to make it work. That’s the thing about writing and or anything else you love to do: no one gets to tell you when to stop.</p></article></body>

Everything we do in life is an individual choice.

“OMG, screw all this… the simple fact is if everyday people don’t rave over it [your writing], it won’t sell. If it won’t sell, there’s no point trying to sell it… At my age, it’s time to realize when a pipe dream is just a pipe dream, learn to be happy at the day job… and just QUIT. QUITTING. It’s still an honourable thing to do. Those delusions of grandeur don’t look good on anyone.”

This is an edited version of the furious response I received on a piece for Start It Up outlining the strategies I plan to use to level up my writing skills.

At first, I found it annoying: I crammed the article with as much useful information as possible because I genuinely wanted to help other writers. Next, I found it amusing: why read a piece about how to better invest in your writing if you believe in just giving up?

Then, I realised this commenter isn’t alone: there are scores of articles out there telling you when as a writer you should just admit defeat, and frankly, now I’m furious too.

You never need anyone’s permission to give up.

Perhaps you’ve realised you never really enjoyed writing but just liked the sound of being a published author? Perhaps the tough cycle of submitting work and getting rejections outweighs the excitement of maybe one day being published? Perhaps it’s become clear you simply value other parts of your life more than writing.

Perhaps you don’t even need a reason, because the truth is none of this tells me anything about your value as a person: the only thing it tells me is that you’ve chosen to stop writing.

It follows you never need anyone’s permission to keep going.

Writing continues to be my favourite activity regardless of how successful I am; it both soothes and excites me at the same time. I once measured my resting heart rate during and after writing and the former was significantly lower. The excitement of learning a new skill also floods me with light like a snapped glowstick.

Maybe you have different reasons for writing: that’s none of my business. The fact is, you’re the only person who can make a good decision about whether or not to give up on writing. Keeping going does not equate to “delusions of grandeur”: the only thing it says about you is that you’re a person who’s chosen to keep writing.

You don’t even need these black-and-white statements.

Blindly moving forward or completely giving up are never your only options: you can also pivot your approach depending on your goals.

Maybe you explore different ways to invest in your progress as a writer such as taking courses or investing in an editor. Perhaps you decide to give up trying to make money from your writing and write only for pleasure. On the other hand, maybe you decide to take on commercial copywriting and give up writing for fun.

Maybe you even realise you‘ve actually just been writing in the wrong genre for you. The writer and podcaster Kirsten Oliphant, for example, gave up writing after she couldn’t get her literary fiction published but began self-publishing romance novels years later; now she’s making insane money selling her books.

It’s okay to adapt to your circumstances.

All this feels feel particularly pertinent to me right now as I navigate the world of fiction writing for the first time. I am learning as I go and I expect my journey to be similar to the time I decided to learn how to ride a bike, aged 30, in a foreign country, on unpaved roads.

In short, I expect I’m in for a few bruises, but I’ve discovered that for me, writing fiction is electrifying. So even if no one wants to publish my fiction, I plan on still finding a way to make it work. That’s the thing about writing and or anything else you love to do: no one gets to tell you when to stop.