Friday, August 12, 2022

"Nobody cares" allows you to discover what it is that YOU care about, and drown out the need to please everyone else.

In my early 20s, I was pretty messed up. In addition, I had few job prospects, zero confidence in my writing skills and no career direction. I was desperate for advice of any kind. While in an out-patient treatment program, I met a gentleman who'd spent a decade as a ghostwriter for an Ashram guru. "Is that something I should do?" I asked him. "I don't give advice," he told me. It seemed, especially considering the venue that had brought us together, these were some of the wisest words ever spoken.

Advice is hard. I only know my own path to writing a book, but it's not the only one. I still struggle everyday to be the writer I want to be. But I guess what I've learned in my own experience is this:  Find people who jog your brain, rustle up your imagination, and generally delight you. It doesn't matter what they do for a living. Collaboration comes in many forms. You don't need to be surrounded by writers to write, not that most fellow writers aren't wildly valuable and generous. From my experience, they truly are. There's much to be gained from asking for help, feedback and straight-up introductions. It's just as important to provide any help you can when others ask for the same. We're kind of all in this together. 

Piper Weiss is the author of two books. Her memoir, You All Grow Up and Leave Me, published by HarperCollins in 2018, was named one of Amazon's Best Books of April. She has held senior editorial positions at New York Daily News, Yahoo, HelloGiggles and Levo. Her writing has appeared in Hazlitt, Lenny Letter, LitHub's CrimeReads, Elle.com and elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn. More on Instagram (@piperweiss). 

https://www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-jc-piper-weiss-20180518-htmlstory.html

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