Requirements of a Writer

Since when was the creative process and its patrons allowed to be dumbed down by generalizations and requirements? "If you're a real writer, you'll do this" "If you expect to be any good, you'll do that". Yea, because all writers that have made a difference in this world referred back to a certain other writing pioneer back when there was no one to refer back to, or made their mark in the world by writing this way, or that way, or reading this person's work. Of course not! There are tips that are helpful and methods that can bring out the best in your work, true, but it shouldn't be limited to that. I'm nowhere near the best at what I do, whether it be writing or anything else, but I got there because of my own experiences and methods, not following guidelines and specific rules and regulations. When that happens, our work loses its spark and value. Our passion becomes a textbook answer.

Who cares what people think? Who cares what one person dubs "good writing" or "correct methods"? No one should, and it's those who don't that make the real difference. I'd rather be called an idiot and end up like all the others who left their mark in the world by being called so than be praised as a genius in a classroom or by convention and replicate work that people have already ingested a million times or fail to cause people to think or understand because my style is outdated and overused, even though that's what I was taught.

I look forward to rejection letters. I'm excited for scoffs and ridicule. It's those responses I will save and keep next to the file cabinet of my acceptances and fan mail and later publish to show how cliche they all will become in the hindsight of history.