I have been discouraged when people don’t like my writing—when people don’t like my voice.
I'm sure this is true for all writers.
The truth is, it’s hard to be yourself when people disagree with what you personally find interesting and beautiful.
Authenticity is a lesson that is almost never taught in school but is integral to being an artist. The truth is, sometimes, people won’t like your writing.
Now, sometimes that friction between differing opinions is definitely healthy and necessary. Dozens of blog posts could be written about the value of knowing the rules before you break them, and the importance of having the humility to listen to other artists’ advice.
But, sometimes, when the choice between two kinds of line break or two uses of allusion seem substantially subjective. As writers, we have a choice between doing what people approve of and doing what they find aesthetically satisfying. One lesson that students need to learn is that, throughout their writing careers, they will have a choice between being recognized and having painfully genuine integrity.
And that is the real-life choice between being normal and being divergent, the choice between being a people-pleaser and being a literary mutant.
The good news is that the greats were often literary mutants. Literary mutants who, no doubt, knew the rules and broke them well. Think Walt Whitman, e. e. cummings, Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen—all of these people were literary freaks when they first unveiled their writing. Each of these writers faced critics who thought that their writing was careless, boring, or just plain weird. These writers were extremely talented and willing to take risks, but that means that they were also ahead of their time. These writers were the hippies, the revolutionaries, the weirdos, the outliers.
But it’s hard for me to remember that being a hippie is ok when people tear my writing to pieces in the workshop.
So I have a very important question.
Again.
To what extent are we willing to let young writers raise their voice?
-Constance