A Serious Caution for Would-Be Fiction Writers

As a stark, serious reminder, we all lead different lives.

We all have different past experiences, different personalities, and different health conditions and concerns. If, in your life, writing fiction has the potential to actually harm you physically or mentally, Please Don’t Do It.

My only intention when I teach fiction writing or issue my silly challenges is to enable you to push yourself a little in doing something I assume (because you’re reading this) you enjoy doing: writing fiction.

But writing fiction should never be something that stresses you out.

Writing fiction should be fun.

As I wrote above, we’re all different. Don’t let my own love and enthusiasm for writing fiction push you into doing something you don’t want to do.

If writing fiction stresses you out, my advice is this:

If you love telling stories but doing so is stressful, find another way to tell stories. Writing into the dark generates better fiction and is stress-free.
If you don’t love telling stories, then simply don’t tell stories. Nobody will care, and if they say your lack of story output matters to them, they’re lying. Live your own life.

The world won’t end if you don’t participate in a challenge or if you do participate but don’t do well.

Seriously, if writing fiction isn’t fun for you, don’t do it. And if striving to write 1000 words (or whatever) per day stresses you out, either lower your goal or enjoy doing something else instead.

Life is ridiculously short. Please don’t waste a second of it.

Chances are, you’re already spending part of your life doing things you don’t like but that you feel you “have” to do. Don’t make writing fiction one of those. Spend your life doing things you enjoy.

Thanks for reading,

Harvey Stanbrough