Ten Pieces of Silver Advice from Gabriel Valjan

 

What are the ten most important things you’ve learned in your time as a writer? Both useful and useless?

 

10. Readers are a better judge of your work than agents or the interns manning the Slush Pile. Publishing is a business, and the majority of agents are looking at your work relative to their business model, so submit your best work, follow directions for submissions, and carry on. What sells is not necessarily Quality.

 

09. Write what you want. Nobody knows what will sell, so you might as well write what gives you pleasure.

 

08. If you strive to improve your craft, what you write tomorrow will be better than what you wrote yesterday.

 

07. Be kind, especially to other writers and to yourself. You never know another person’s journey in life, and they don’t know yours.

 

06. Learn your strengths as a writer and work to improve on your weaknesses.

 

05. Rejection is not personal. This is a business, and agents and editors are human beings. There are numerous reasons for your story’s being rejected, from your story is similar to another story to your storytelling’s not being their cup of tea.

 

04. ‘Write what you know’ is both the best and worst advice I’ve received. Writing from experience helps with credibility and a plausible story, but use it as a springboard for your creativity. Write to discover how you think and feel about something. It’ll make you a better person and writer. Empathy and compassion are not to be underestimated.

 

03. Always be courteous and professional, with readers and critics. Not everyone will like you, so why lash out and give anyone ammunition? Strive to leave a positive impression. Don’t forget, what you say online lives forever, and some people have long memories.

 

02. Never respond to negative reviews. Ever. Say a simple, ‘Thank you’ to kind words. Know that there are keyboard warriors out there whose only joy in life is to demean others.

 

01. Write what scares the hell out of you, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. It’s too tempting to replicate formula. Success (to me) is growth, falling and standing up, and trying again.

 

EXTRA. Show up and confront the blank page. Most people talk the talk, but few sit down and do the work. Whatever you write is your creation, something from deep within you, and what is on the page is an exercise in imagination and your own unique relationship with language. If you’re writing in English, don’t underestimate the difficulty of the language you take for granted.

 

Your writing may provide a reader out there with comfort, companionship, insight, or much-needed entertainment.