Writing Advice - What Feels Right

Locus Magazine published the blog post The Freedom of Embracing Your Voice by Amanda Bridgeman. She writes:

It is very freeing to understand who you are, what you write, and then lean into that. Because, once you’re comfortable in your style and your preferred genres, you can then focus on finding your audience. For me, there’s absolutely no point in trying to win over Hard SF fans, because they’re probably going to find my work too simple for them. And that’s okay, because there are readers who don’t enjoy Hard SF for the reason that it’s too dense, therefore they just may like mine.

And:

 Still, it’s each to their own. Some readers want the big cruise ship and some want the little speed boat. If you’re a writer, I implore you to take a look at what you write and embrace it whole-heartedly. You don’t need to live up to or emulate anyone else. If you like your SF as weird as it get—there is a market for you, so embrace it and go find your people! Whether you like Dystopian, Military SF, Steampunk, Post-Apocalyptic, SF Romance, Cyberpunk, Alien Contact, etc., etc., there is a market for everyone. Write what you love, the way you  want to, and shout it from the rooftops, baby!

Here let me tell you one thing that I told myself when after arriving in prison I decided to keep writing. I decided there was little chance of ever being published, which let me write what I wanted as I wanted to write. The thing was to write the best prose I could write. I read to see what was good prose. Then I scribbled and scribbled.

You might some day get a chance to judge if my writing, to see if the best is any good.

sch

12/6/21