Some great writing advice from author Caroline Leavitt

"One of the biggest mistakes I see from novel writers is that they are trying to write for an audience, for an agent, for an editor or for the market. Uh uh uh. The job of a writer is to put truth--your particular truth--onto the page. You want to put the blood on the page, you want to dig deep into your soul and in a sense, the only person you should be writing for is you. Write the book you want to read. Make your novel a question that obsesses you personally and in writing it, dig deep and find the answer. When you concentrate so deeply on what is important to you, it will become universal--and then it will be important to others." -- Author Caroline Leavitt

Caroline Leavitt teaches, as I do, at the UCLA Extension Writers Program, and I found this quote from her under the "Writers Tips" section of the program's website. I haven't read her books, but I'm going to start with Girls in Trouble.

I think what this author says is very true, and I also think it's partly why it's so hard to move on to the next thing. You pour your heart and soul into something and when you're done, you feel drained. It's like, I don't know what else I have to give. What more do you want from me?

But I know I do have something else in me. It's just a matter of getting the strength up to figure it out, face it, and put it on the page.