Sixteen weeks after the first day of the second new year

Sister liked the dos and don’ts list in this blog’s post twelve weeks after the first day of the second new year, so Author decided to put together another one. These small tips have a tendency to hang around in her mind for days, bugging her, so might as well write them down and share them, make way for the next ones that are sure to come along. Here goes, the dos first this time just because they’re first in Author’s mind:

Do check now and then that you’re on the path you’ve set for yourself, that you’re working within the boundaries of your plan, that your plan and the schedule you’ve set for yourself are practical and right for what you’re aiming to achieve.

Do learn from your mistakes, otherwise you’re bound to make the same ones again and again. Going back to old habits won’t get you anywhere if these habits are unproductive, it’s improvement you seek after all. So take the time to understand what you did wrong, and do things differently next time. And yes, Author knows a version of this Do was in her previous list, but it’s an important one, so a reminder is due.

Do take a breath, then another, a deep one, and brace yourself – and then listen to criticism. If the criticism catches you unprepared, and it’s painful, then do the breathing after. Whatever it takes, just as long as you listen. You don’t have to accept it, but if you don’t listen, how will you know if it’s any good? Remember, you’re trying to improve.

Do listen to yourself. When you first embark on the path to becoming a published author, there is a lot you don’t know, and the path looks foggy. You don’t always know what step to take next, or how to take it. But you do know yourself. You know your capabilities, your limits, your strengths and weaknesses. So your gut feeling does count.

But also Do listen to others. Just make sure they’re worth listening to. Nowadays there are so many ways to communicate with so many people, and that’s great, but remember to listen to quality, to honesty, to reality.

Do learn to stand up on your own. You wrote the story, you can take it all the way to the end, to publication. Don’t expect others to do all your work for you, it’s yours to do. Yes, you can and should enlist the help of others where you need it, and yes, there’s a lot you will need to learn from others with more knowledge and experience than you, but eventually you will need to make this knowledge your own, adapt it to your needs and abilities, or, in other places, adapt yourself to it. And a lot will be up to you, you will need to develop through your own experience, and your own experiences. And although standing up on your own might sound scary, you will have to do it. You’re not anyone’s shadow, you are a writer in your own right.

And while you’re at it, Do be confident in yourself, in what you have chosen to do, in how you do it. Just remember to back up this confidence with real abilities inherent and acquired, real work done, and real knowledge gained.

And some don’ts:

Don’t avoid tasks you don’t like. Every task that makes up what you’re building has to be done, whether you enjoy it or not. You don’t get to decide what to do and what not to do, you do what’s required for your readers to get the best you can give them. So give every task it’s due time, it’s due attention, and it’s due importance.

Don’t (ever!) cut corners, or take the easy way, or do half a job, or do things badly just because you don’t feel like doing them or because you want to publish faster. Just don’t. It will diminish from who you are and from the quality of your work, and it’s just not the right thing to do. Show respect for your readers, for the people who work with you, for those who believe in you and stand by you on this path you’ve chosen, and for yourself.

Don’t fret about mistakes. Yes, easier said than done, that goes without saying. All Author is saying is, don’t give yourself a hard time, everyone makes mistakes. Wasting more time and trapping yourself into a corner of delays, self-doubt, and an overload of fears and concerns won’t help. Learn from whatever it was that happened and get back to work, that’ll keep you too busy to feel bad about it.
But also, Don’t be overconfident. You don’t know everything, you will make mistakes, and mistakes are important and need to be given due consideration.

Don’t try to control everything. You can’t. This has been true for your life so far, and it’s true now. No one can control everything, that’s just the way it is. And Don’t worry about what you can’t control. It’s futile, it’s exhausting, it’s disheartening, and it takes precious attention from the many things that you can do. Just do the best you can with what you have and with who you are, and keep working toward your goals. You’ll get there.

Don’t do this alone. Talk to people like you. Create new contacts. Make new friends. Share. This will help you deal with time, with mistakes, with self-doubts, with whatever it is that’s difficult for you to deal with on the way. And that’s beside the people who love you, whom you should always keep by your side. They are your strength. And this, you can be sure Author will repeat again and again throughout this blog.

That’s that then. Author isn’t promising there won’t be more of these lists. Who knows. Probably will. But not this week, this week all that remains for Author to say is: you know what to do, you know what to don’t, now get back to work!