Thanks to social media for making battle lines and hills to die on over absolutely nonsensical things. You're not a better or smarter writer for pursuing one mode of publishing over another. In the end, everyone still has to sell books and market books, and earn money back to pay for expenses.

So many questions, so many answers.

This week, it's all about narrative gain versus narrative accomplishment. It's all about how to be a better writer. It's all about what frustrations you can run into as a writer, and most importantly what you can do about the damn #WritingCommunity

Give this one a listen, it's worth your time.

PATREON - http://patreon.com/johnhelpsyouwritebetter

Whatever you think you're gaining or even doing by caring so much about how long it takes to write whatever you're writing, I promise you that you're not getting any benefit by beating yourself up for writing taking time.

No one cares about how long it took. It's not a factor in submissions or sales, it's just some number that social media uses as a way to rank people.

Don't buy in.

No, you can't fail at a thing if you're still doing it. And no, you can't let other people's opinions convince you that you're failing either.

All those arguments about what "good" writers do are fear-based and rooted in misunderstanding what it means to be an artist and what it means to be creative. Life happens. Your book is your lens for viewing life that you're sharing with the reader.

Tracking by word count don't account for the wealth of variety in how art gets made. We make creativity happen, not widgets in a factory.

Did you ask yourself what you did today that moved you closer to your goal?

What's your plan to take another step closer tomorrow?

People are succeeding all around you. It can feel like you're not good enough because you're not doing as much on the same timeline as them and that you're a bad person for doing the same thing they're doing but not getting the same results.

You're not a bad person. What someone else does and the degree to which they do it are not your responsibility to emulate, they're a demonstration of what's possible. Their success is not your template, so don't adopt what they're doing to get their success as a way for you to get your own success along the way.

You do you, they do them.

Do you have a best friend? How do you talk to them, whenever you do talk to them?

Is it overly formal? Is it too lax? Is it a constant on-going conversation across text and chat? Is it once in a blue moon?

What if you could speak to your ideal reader that way?

Will your book be one of the 60,000 books produced in the next 12 months. On average, the majority of those 60k books will sell between 6 and 14 copies over their entire book lifespan, so are you prepared for that?

Are you ready to treat this like a job, even if it's a fun job? Or are you more in love with the fantasy of being a writer and the act of writing than being a published author who works for a living?

It's another week and another 12 questions answered, all to help you write better.

BE WARNED!! Things get spicy and ranty here as we talk about second acts, saving money, writing plans, doing your best and navigating criticism.