I’ve included a few bits of advice on writing, disguised as rules of thumb, in these notes, so I ought to include a word from Russell Edson as an antidote.
Edson, known for his prose poems, said: “The best advice I can give is to ignore advice. Life is just too short to be distracted by the opinions of others. The main thing is to get going with your work however you see it. If you can’t do it on your own, it’s probably something that’s not worth your doing. The beginning writer has only to write to find his art. It’s not a matter of talent. We’re all talented. Desire and patience takes us where we want to go.”
There are two schools of thought: (1) Ignore all advice. (2) Listen to all the advice you can get.
It's a contradiction, of course, but I’m not about to give up on either school.
The best approaches to some of the really good things in life — including writing — involve paradoxes. Or so it seems to me.
• Source: I found Edson's remark in an interview with Peter Johnson, “The Art of the Prose Poem”; The Prose Poem: An International Journal, Vol. 8, 1999.
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