I just received an e-mail asking for advice about making the leap to writing her own fiction. Here’s the advice I would give anyone in this situation:
Screw what anyone else thinks. Your joy as an artist can only come from you doing your thing without apology, and trusting that to take you where you need to go.
Ignore the bad advice you’ll get from publishing industry people and from those whose dreams and sense of themselves is tangled up with getting creative permission from corporations. Very few of us make it commercially, but you can always be happy if you stay focused on your writing as self-expression and as a discipline you can always be growing and making progress in (by getting truer and truer to yourself as you also gain skill).
Do what’s fun for you!
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