The Best Advice I Can Offer A Writer

Here's the thing . . . if you're a writer, you're a writer. 

If you've written a book, you're an author. 

Enuff said, right?
 
Maybe. 

I cringe when I hear writers telling other writers what they HAVE to do in order to be a success. The most important thing a writer needs to do is to be true to his or herself, true to his or her story, and true to his or her characters.

HOWEVER, I cringe even more when I hear writers diss people whose advice they don't agree with. You can disregard advice, you know, without dissing the adviser. Perhaps not all advice is given as a way to offend;, maybe sometimes it's actually as an offer of help? 

I've said before, and I'll say again . . . all writers should forever be students of the craft. And you can't grow without criticism. The trick is to take what you feel applies to you, and gracefully disregard what you believe does not. 

The bigger trick is being objective enough to know the difference. 

We all want to think we're already experts (I think so, everyday, for about five whole minutes!), but when we get to the point when we can say, "Shyt, he can't tell me nothing," then we've made a conscious decision to stunt our own growth.

So, yes . . . always do you, and be true to what you write, but always be open to improve.

That's my advice. 

For what it's worth.

School Prayer? No, thanks!

December 14, 2012 - 26 people killed in a Connecticut elementary school; 20 of them are children. 

A true tragedy. And along with people using this as an opportunity to call for gun control, we also have people saying that this tragedy proves that we should have school prayer. 

But here is my question . . . how would school prayer have prevented the massacre? For those saying the school shooting proves we need school prayer- please stop using this tragedy to push your own agenda.

Do you think having God put back in our school would stop the school shootings? Is is it because you feel group prayer will stop devastating violence? If that were the case, would it have been possible for four little African-American girls to been killed in a church basement while readying for Sunday school in Birmingham, AL back in 1963?

School is a place to learn academics and secular things. Church and home is the place to learn about God and spiritual. To put God back into the school, would be to disenfranchise those who are either atheists, or who do not worship God in the way of the community majority. 

How would you feel if your Christian child had to sit in the classroom and pray to Buddha every morning; or to Allah?

I do think that children should be exposed to prayer every single day… And as a parent you should lead them in that prayer - and not expect the school to do it for you.

I am fervent about prayer, and I pray every day. And when my child was young and living with me, we prayed together every evening and every morning before she went to school. 

But to say that prayer should be practiced in public schools, with children of all different beliefs means that you are saying that the way you practice is the practice that all children should be subjected to.

Unless, of course, you are advocating for prayer in all of the different religious paths… Including allowing the Muslim children to make prayer five times a day in the classroom if it is their custom to do so?

 
Or do you only want the type of prayer that you practice brought back into school? If that is the case, then you should send your child to a private religious school.

The prayer that we choose, should not be forced upon others. The form in which we pray, should not be forced upon others. The religion in which we believe, should not be forced upon others.

I believe that prayer, religion, and faith in God… Should be taught at home and in our places of worship. Not in public schools.