Joseph Gergen Works

I suppose free advice is often worth exactly what you pay for it. But here’s some free advice on being a writer or an artist of any sort for that matter.

I want you take a moment and ask yourself a question and it’s going to seem like a simple question but bear with me. It’s often the simple question that leads to a greater truth. Reminds me of a comment from a math teacher I had in college. It went something like this: For every theorem there is a simple, easy to understand wrong answer.

That being said the question to ask yourself is “Why?” Why do you write or why do you want to write? Such a simple question.

The good thing is that there is no right or wrong answer. But right or wrong, I’ve found a quick, easy answer might not get to the heart of the matter. And that is what we are after here, the heart of the matter. Not an easy answer.

So it might take some pondering. And if it’s important to you, it’s worth pondering. Looking at what drives you, at what gives you fulfillment, at what brings you back.  Because if you have a better sense of what drives you, you can keep coming back to that purpose, to that calling, like the North Star, you can use it to keep your bearing.

I can’t tell you what the answer is. I can tell you one path to that answer is understanding who you are. What makes you tick. What do you like. What gets your juices going. What do you not like. What shuts you down.

 For myself it helps when hearing or reading advice. I comfortable in saying this kind of advice or that will resonate with me or it won’t. I’m petty loosey goosey about rules so anything that sounds absolute or ridged or too structured just isn’t going to work. And I’m okay with that. Even if I think it might be good for me, doing things that make it unpleasant will drive me away. So being aware of why I write and who I am make me comfortable in my choices (which is not to say you shouldn’t ever leave your lane or find discipline in practice or anything like that). To thine own self be true, as they say.

So take your time. Come up with a complicated, dirty, contradictory-filled reason why you write. Then you’ll know whether or not to take my free advice.