Those who know me know that I’m a champion of the Tough Love School of Motivation. I don’t believe in coddling anyone nor relieving them of their personal responsibility with regard to their actions.
However, when it comes to being creative, Tough Love comes up a little short and has an unfortunate tendency to come across as unconstructive criticism. I don’t like to do reviews or critiques of others’ work because the kind of honesty that I deal in doesn’t allow much room for ego stroking or emotional support. I evaluate each piece that I’m asked on its own merits and construction.
I’ve been called an Encourager and I suppose that it’s true. I believe that anything worth doing is worth doing right and giving up is the ultimate expression of failure. I also believe that anyone who can be discouraged from writing, should be and rightly so. There’s no easy road to becoming a good writer and the steps involved to get to that point are arduous, repetitive, and often downright annoying. The reward isn’t the approval of your peers or the money in your bank account, but rather the satisfaction of producing a story that you can be proud to share with others. Anything else is like posting pictures of your cat laying across your keyboard and then saying that you can’t get it done due to hairballs. Pure. Utter. Hogwash.
I’ll never tell anyone to quit writing…or painting…or whatever they want to do. However, I’ll never shy away from filling them in on the work involved. Romanticism aside, there are no magic elves who will finish your stuff while you sleep nor invisible Greek demi-goddesses whispering prose in your ear. It’s all you and if you believe you got it, then you do.
So, get on with it and of course, Ever Forward. 🙂
Writing in Real Time 
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