Shut Up! Getting Past Negative Self-talk as a Writer

This is Gail Carson Levine's advice to all writers. She says that we all will or have indulge/d in this sort of chatter when we write. Her advice is to absolutely not do it. That means that as a writer you accept everything you produce as having value either now or in the future. So that means I should just put this out there to you--my first Blog ever--and be okay with it for its sake alone (deep breath).

She also suggests hanging on to literally everything you write--for years. Her advice to young writers is to keep your writing to use when you are older and trying to recapture emotions/voice of earlier times. So I've been thinking about how cool it would be to have these "primary documents" about, say, the pain of being the lead strike-out player on your t-ball team--"The Rainbows"--game after game or elementary school picture day when you had to stand next to the same dorky guy AGAIN just because you were both the tallest in the class.