We are the master of our own ship and where and how far we sail is entirely up to us. Whatever we decide to do in our writing life is our choice. It is not our best friend's decision, nor our spouse, nor our children. It's ours!
We decide if we want to keep writing in one genre or try out another one or two. The grocer, the butcher and the baker have no say in what we attempt to write. We decide!
It is our decision to keep our writing private or to make every effort to get our work published. The teacher next door, the pastor of our church or the lady who does our alterations cannot tell us what to choose in this instance. It's up to us!
We must take full responsibility in our writing life. Does that mean that we cannot ask for another opinion? Of course not. Listening to others does give us assistance in making our choice. Make no mistake, however, that final choice is our own.
Should we disregard all the things we read in a book on the craft of writing? Never that. We read, take what we learned into consideration and then apply it to our own writing life in some way. How we do it is our choice.
So, if we are responsible for every decision and choice we make, does that mean we have to shoulder the blame when things go awry? Probably so, but we also learn from what did not work and use that knowledge to help us make the next choice.
In our writing life, we have choices and decisions to make on a daily basis. Experience, the thoughts of others and what we learn from books or workshops or classes are the aids we use to decide and choose. The longer we write, the easier it is to make those decisions and choices.
Believe that you are the one in charge and the choices and decision making becomes much easier.
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