I received two pieces of writing advice early in my writing career and I thought I'd pass them along on the blog.
Shortly after I published my first book, a writer with many, many more books under her belt told me that the process will change from book to book. She said not to fight it, but to go with the new process.
This turned out to be the best piece of writing advice I ever received because my process did change, sometimes dramatically, and if I had fought to write the same way I'd always done it, I never would have been able to complete the stories.
My process changes lesser degrees between books now than it did at the beginning, but it still changes and how I'm writing now is very different from how I was doing it just five years ago.
The second piece of writing advice I received was from the same author and just as helpful. I was burned out and thinking about quitting writing as soon as I finished the contract I'd signed at that time. (It was a two-book deal, and I had one book left to go.)
She asked me if I had any stories I wanted to tell. Well, yes, of course I did. I named about a dozen. She told me that as long as I had stories to tell, I should keep writing.
Sometimes, it wasn't easy to keep writing. For example, it was a long time after my mom died before I was able to write a coherent story, but eventually I finished Wicked Obsession (and dedicated it to my mom). If I had quit while I was burned out, I would have regretted it later. It also might have been difficult to resume writing.
I hope you find this writing advice as helpful as I did.
