There is no right way. I’m convinced of that. There is no prescribed method, no fail-safe route through to literary correctness, no “tick the boxes” path of certainty to guide your hand and lead your way. If you love writing, for its own sake, for the joyous release it affords your mind, then write from the heart. Invest your words with that private passion which reveals your spirit – your spirit – that which gives your writing its unique and personal voice. Write for yourself, first and last.

Few of us choose to speak with another’s voice, so why should we write with one? Few of us live our lives governed by the strict regimen of prescribed behaviour, but allow ourselves the liberating experience of personal taste and style. And why not so when we write?

And when the critic or critique says “you can’t do that” or “you shouldn’t do that”, why not? Why not, when what you do invests your writing with rhythm and cadence, with passion and belief? Why condense the sentence to its basic essence, when in so doing the beauty of the language is lost? Why replace the visionary with the mundane, in vain expectation of a more universal understanding? Why compromise to please the many, when you can persevere and delight the few?

Why not?