Sometimes you might read a day’s work back to yourself and feel unsatisfied, but remember that every page you write, over the long timeline of hours spent writing, makes you a better writer. Each page, too, helps you know yourself, as a writer, a little more acutely—which is how you can come to tell when you’re trying to overlook something that isn’t working. Instead of hoping a reader or editor won’t notice—which they will, and if they don’t, it means the piece didn’t make them care, which isn’t good either—you’ll feel the push to go back and explore other possibilities. This is not to say there can never be any unknowns, even deep in the process; that’s one of the beauties of working with an editor, who will see and amplify what you’re doing instinctively. (Writers need editors, as much as editors need writers, so be open to that collaboration.) Read every day, even if it’s just a page—some bedtimes are read-one-page bedtimes, and that’s okay. And, lastly, don’t fret about your age or productivity as compared to other writers. Writing takes time, and your career, if you choose and your health allows, can be as long as your lifetime.
—Megan Cummins, editor-at-large, A Public Space
Photo credit: Frank Cosgriff