What makes us writers.
Writers: Never let anyone tell you what to do.
A little ironic, huh? Bearing in mind that I´m pretending to make this text an advice. But it's true. Never let anyone tell you what to do.
People around us, especially adults, are used to giving out advices that weren´t asked in the first place. "Write about this, not about that", "Don't say this, say that", "Do it my way and not as you want".
It is true that the people around us - mothers, fathers, grandparents, etc. - have lived longer than us. They have experience. And they will always try to do everything in their power to avoid certain situations. Can we blame them? They mean well: Concerned parents who want to prevent their child from ending up in an embarrassing situation or an unwanted fight.
Good intentions do not mean good advice.
People around us lived things. They have been through certain experiences. And now it's our turn to have those experiences too. Obviously, nobody likes to feel embarrassed. Nobody goes through life waiting for the best moment to have a fight with their friends or just looking for a bad time. But, no matter how bad that moment is, they are experiences that at a certain point we must live for ourselves.
As writers it is important to know how to listen and defend our inner voice because whatever we write, it will come out of us.
Our voice is how and why we choose to tell things.
Example: You feel angry about X situation, and a person from your environment approaches and asks you: Are you really going to get angry about that? It is not so bad.
That person has no right to tell us how we should feel. You don't control your feelings. If so, we would all be happy and in love, because no one in their right mind enjoys feeling sad and desolate. So yeah, I get mad. And I get angry for this reason, and this other, and this another, and this other one. Reasons that the person asking the question does not know, reasons that belong to me. To us. To you.
Reasons that compel me to tell the story from a certain perspective.
Our inner voice: Why do I choose to tell the story like this or like that.
We cannot speak for others. We cannot steal other people's voices in the same way that no one can steal ours.
Writers, the road is not easy. It is long, overwhelming, and sometimes it makes us want to throw everything out the window and become a lawyer or a public accountant. But in the same way that the road has its difficult moments, it also has its great moments. Create new characters and get to know each other step by step, discover what things we have in common [insert emotional release here] and what sets us apart. The satisfaction of having made two characters realize that they have found love, or the happiness of having reunited old best friends. The enormous pride of seeing our work finished... And of seeing how many people our work has changed - for the better.
Our inner voice is important. Listen to it, defend it, obey it.
But more importantly: Don't let it die.
