“Don’t take anyone’s writing
advice too seriously.”
(Lev
Grossman)
Yes, that.^
Including my advice. Including my advice to consider
Lev Grossman’s advice. Seriously.
One of the tell-telling signs of an insecure professional
is how they treat professional advice. They will typically heed it blindly,
with reverence, swaying in contradictory breezes this way and that. Or they
will reject advice willy-nilly.
Once a certain competence sets in, these extremes
fade into the gray zone. Advice considered, not treated as holy writ, and then accepted/modified/rejected.
Lev Grossman is a writer and critic at the top of
his game. His simple advice, to “not take too seriously,” is an efficient
articulation of that gray zone. It isn’t a NO, it isn’t a YES, and it modifies
the word “seriously” with a nifty qualifier.
I listen, consider, and move on. I wholeheartedly
applaud you for doing the same with anything I ever wrote, or will write, in
this blog.
