In which I get annoyed at writing advice

I was reading through my rss feeds last night, as I am wont to do, and came across a piece of writing advice that I’ve seen many times:

“Don’t have time to write?  Get up an hour earlier – or better, two hours earlier – and write!”

I do know that this works for some people, but it’s just struck me this morning how damn ableist this kind of advice is.

For example, you have someone like me.  I deal with chronic illness on a daily basis, and to manage the worst of the illness, I need to move, I need to eat vaguely decently, I need to rest.

If I forced myself to get up an hour or two earlier to write, I would be a wreck.  I hate that I need more sleep than most people.  Ideally, I need about nine or ten hours a night.  Most nights I get about eight.  I can coast on one night of six or seven, but it hurts.  Anything less than that, and I am not functional.

I know it’s a pretty obvious thing to complain about, but I am complaining anyway.  I always feel like people who dole out this kind of advice are implying that if you can’t sacrifice sleep to write, then you’re just not determined enough to be a writer, dammit.  It’s a great idea if you can manage it without sacrificing your health (and that goes for people without chronic illness as well), but it’s not the only way.

Writing is a priority for me, but so is my family and my health.  There has to be a balance.

Mirrored from Stephanie Gunn.

In which I am snapshotted!

The Aussie Spec Fic Snapshot 2012 is a project that aims to produce a view of speculative fiction scene in Australia; as part of the lead up to Continuum 8, interviews for Snapshot 2012 are conducted by and posted at the blogs of Alisa Krasnostein, Kathryn Linge,David McDonald, Helen Merrick, Ian Mond, Jason Nahrung, Alex Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Tehani Wessely and Sean Wright.

You can find the past three Snapshots at the following links: 2005, 2007 and 2010

I am somewhat flummoxed (hi, imposter syndrome!) but very delighted to be included as part of Snapshot 2012  - you can find my interview with Ian Mond here.  I ramble about the Aurealis Awards judging, my own inability to write short stories and the projects that I’m working on, pretty much.

 

 

Mirrored from Stephanie Gunn.