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What happens when parents don’t support your writing? This is a question for the next ‘around the coffee table’ discussion:
How do you write and keep yourself writing when your parents do not encourage you and sometimes discourage you? How do you find critique groups and improve without conflicting with your parents?
Victory in the march. Hope in the destination.
There are various things that can help with this, but one of the largest is something Brandon said in a recent podcast we recorded.
If you don’t take your writing seriously, no one else will. Be willing to sacrifice free time or gaming time or such. Show that you are dedicated to what you are doing. It doesn’t mean you’ll get everything right away. But if others see you are serious about something, they’re much more likely to treat it as serious themselves.
Any thoughts or others to tag, @daeus?
Victory in the march. Hope in the destination.
Dude it doesn’t matter. I’ve never had parental support where writing or anything is concerned. And I’m doing just fine. I’ve had people (parents, mostly) make fun of my writing, mock me, call me a horrible person and generally just hurt me in general Bc of my writing, but guess how much I care? Only, like, not at all. You’ve gotta just keep doing your thing. Your writing has value whether or not someone else acknowledges it so yeah lots of people don’t have support and we’re still going you can too don’t let other people stop you seriously
edit: this is hypothetical in which case @anyone at all
I think it probably should matter, but most importantly as to whether the hindrance is logical and godly or some ‘other’ reason. If your parents have a problem with you writing, for whatever reason, I think you ought to respect that. They are your parents and if it’s a sound reason, then at least hear it out and think about it before dismissing it. Even if it doesn’t sound like it’s a good reason to you, it might be something that you just don’t want to hear. And I know that sounds odd when it’s pertaining to writing, but I think it’s always best to hear out both sides first in anything before coming to concrete decision. Especially where parents are involved, who are meant to be the authority in your life.
If it’s pertaining to a certain sort of writing – for example, some Christian friends of mine weren’t allowed to watch Disney movies when they were younger due to the magical elements. And that’s perfectly logical – many children grow up thinking magic is real when they’re young, and my friend’s parents didn’t like that ideology due to the correlations magic has in this world. As they got older, they were allowed more and more freedom, and were trusted with making good decisions due to knowing exactly what their parents(and God!) would approve of before sitting down to watch a movie or read a book. Things like that are very important, I think, and are sorely lacking in today’s world.
If the ‘hindrance’ isn’t really hindrance, but more of a lack of support or excitement about your writing career… Honestly, I’m not sure what to say. I’ve never had many problems just “doing my own thing” and not bothering whether people praised it or not – I mean, sure, I like getting praised or supported in something just as much as anyone else, I suppose I just never really felt the need to seek it out or make it a major factor in whether I did something or not. I care about what people say, but only the logical or godly things, not just the random person who says I should listen to everything they say “or else” if you know what I mean. But I think there’s usually perhaps a good reason why a parent might not be supporting a writing career, or a worry behind it – writing isn’t exactly the most stable career, you know, and parents fear that their children won’t grow up and be happy with their lives or that they’ll end up so deep in debt that they’ll never be able to do much with themselves throughout life. I know that’s a big fear my own parents have just due to how they grew up and how we’ve grown up. They want me to have a stable job, to make a decent amount of money, and be able to help people and seek God with the freedoms that allows me – such as not having to pay off tons of debt from college because I was undecided and switched degrees, or because I didn’t get a job in my field, or because I went to college and got a writing degree but wasn’t a good enough writer at the time to pay it off soon enough before interest piled up.
Anyhow, that’s just a bunch of my random thoughts on the subject. 😉
"A hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head."
- C. S. Lewis
WOW! I totally agree with you!! 100% That’s really good advice.
Sold souls and dead promises
Thank you! 🙂
"A hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head."
- C. S. Lewis
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