Every Sunday, I choose a passage of wisdom from someone who knows better and much more than I do about writing, life, the universe and/or everything.
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“As a writer, you must maintain your basic integrity: You must be true to what you believe in, nd you must write mainly for yourself. If what you write pleases your editors and readers, that’s fine. That’s the goal. But first you must please yourself.
“Hey!” you tell yourself. “There’s a big market out there for junky romance novels, so I’ll write one. My stuff can’t be any worse thn what’s already getting published!”
No good. If you compromise your talent, if you deliberately write something you consider “junk,” two things will happen: 1) You will have contempt for yourself and suffer subsequent loss of self-respect for your talent; and 2) You won’t sell your “junk.”
Why won’t you’ve able to sell your junky romance novel? Because if you talk to successful writers of published romance novels, you will learn that they believe in Wht they’re doing. They have genuine affection and respect for the genre they are a part of…
You, too must have pride in what you write. If you feel contempt for your work, your effort at writing-down to the market will be transparent, and you won’t be able to sell. If you attempt to write what is false to you, you’ll never achieve writing success.”
~ from Let’s Get Creative: writing fiction that sells, by William F. Nolan
The official blog of Michelle Tuckett, word ninja. 