There will be people in your life who will try to tell you you’re wrong, who will frown upon your writing or flat-out tell you that you should stop. They could be well-meaning people, like your friends and family, who think they're doing you a favor by stopping you from a miserable existence and by persuading you to get a stable job and get paid. They could be strangers you've just met. And they could be anyone in between.

If all writers listened to those people, we’d have no books and no writers.

Persist.

In the face of adversity, in the face of people telling you to stop, criticizing you or your writing, or plain shouting in your face (yes, that happens too), PERSIST.

And know you’re not alone. If you continue writing, you’re blazing the trail for the rest of us. And for those of us who haven’t had the courage yet to start. 

As I said in my tweet here, your work is urgent. You don’t have time to get distracted. Focus, focus, focus. Do all it takes to create space and time for yourself to write every day, then do it. 

P.S.: Read this blog post by Seth Godin, A Catastrophe Journal, and do it, it’s brilliant. Also, subscribe to his blog. His wisdom is priceless.

P.P.S.: This just occurred to me…do you think I should start posting these daily writing tips on my blog? Post them here on Patreon first, with early access for you (say, a week or two early, because you’re my beloved patrons who are supporting me with your hard-earned money), and then open it up for everyone on my blog? Thoughts?

Illustration by Seva