When I moved into my new house, I put my silverware in the wrong drawer. I know it didn't really matter, but I kept reaching for a drawer on the other side when I wanted a spoon. I finally moved stuff. It's funny but I think when grow up, we continue to do things the way we did them as a child, the way our mothers did. We've always done it that way.
Then a second person comes into our lives and tries to show us the way they always did it, because that's how their mother or dad folded the towels, put the paper on the bathroom roll, mowed the lawn. Unless, of course, we hated the way our parent did things, then we totally rebel. Sometime, along the way we find a brand new way, it becomes ours and we pass it along.
Writing may be the same way. We stay in our comfort zone, writing what we always write. We're comfortable that way, but is our career going where we want? When we read, are we reading only the writers we always snap up, or do we try new authors, who may have new takes on a genre? Taking risks, submitting to print publishers and agents when epubs like the work you do, trying a new genre or stretching the one you write now. I think we need to write what we enjoy, but if we are no longer happy with what's happening then it's time to stretch, find the new way, step out of that comfortable box.
Have you stepped out of your box lately, stretched and reached for something new?
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