If you are looking to get permission before you start writing, well, you might be in for a bit of a wait.

Certainly nobody ever gave me any approval.

Don’t wait for someone else to tell you that you can start.

Be inspired! Approach it like a professional.

And make it about the art of it.

When you do, I think you will find that the only person who can give you permission to write, is you.

Do the work. And leave the outcome up to fate.

If you’re waiting for the green light, the go-ahead, the reassuring wand to tap your shoulder and anoint you as a writer, you’d better pull out your thermos and folding chair because you’re going to be waiting for a good long while. Accountants go to business school and when they graduate with their degrees, they don’t ask themselves whether they have permission to do people’s taxes. Lawyers pass the bar, medical students become doctors, academics become professors, all without considering whether or not they have a right to be going to work. But nothing and no one gives us permission to wake up and sit at home staring at a computer screen while everybody else sets their alarm clocks, puts on reasonable attire, and boards the train.

-Dani Shapiro, Still Writing

The best writing background there is may come as bad news for most people.

I mean, what if a big advantage to the writing life is something that is completely uncontrollable?

I have my doubts, of course, because I tend to think each person gets to decide.

But what if the best writing background is simply being an only child?

Or, maybe we should say:

“People with a lonely childhood are more likely to have certain characteristics that successful writers have.”

Regardless, it’s good news for me though, if you want to know the truth.

I still crave the quiet referred to here.

I grew up the only child of older parents. If I were to give you a list of all the facts of my early life that made me a writer, this one would be near the top. Only child. Older parents. It now almost seems like a job requirement—though back then, I wished it to be otherwise. A lonely, isolated childhood isn’t a prerequisite for a writing life, of course, but it certainly helped.

-Dani Shapiro, Still Writing