Just Write

I have literally been pondering all week about what I want this post to be about.  This is going to be my first piece of advice about writing to my readers.  So it should be good, right?  It should be something that will stay with you but also encourage you to read more of my blog and yet also summarize writing in general so that if you never read anything else from me at least you'll have this one thing.

Whoo, pressure.

But I think I finally decided.  And it's not even my own advice.  I'm taking it from Anne Lamott, who took it from Natalie Goldberg.  Quoting from Lamott's book, Bird by Bird, she said, "Someone once asked her [Goldberg] for the best possible writing advice she had to offer, and she held up a yellow legal pad, pretended her fingers held a pen, and scribbled away."

If you want to write, you have to write.  A lot.  It's not always going to be good.  In fact most of the time it's going to be really, really terrible and you'll doubt your abilities and wonder if you should go into accounting because you were obviously not put on this planet to write words.  But that's just how it goes.  I've written a ton of things that are absolutely awful.  Some of them I didn't realize were awful until someone pointed it out to me.  Others I knew were terrible but I loved the storyline anyway.

So, first piece of advice: just write.  Write anything.  It might turn out to be the worst thing ever written.  But that's okay, because you did it and you can learn from it.

I've taken a few creative writing classes (I'll talk about these in later posts), and I learned about literary theory from them.  But honestly, the thing that helped me most to discover my voice, to discover what works for me and what doesn't, to discover the problems I often have, was to just write.  It helps to have someone who can read your stuff and let you know what can be improved, too.  Otherwise you might never realize your characters are flat and you don't give enough description.  As you write and review and have someone else review as well, you'll get better and you'll settle into your niche.

In my introduction I mentioned when I was younger I wrote a lot of things that never got finished.  I don't regret starting those stories at all.  They were practice.  It was not a waste of time to start those novels, because the very act of writing helped me to write better.  And I don't regret not finishing those books.  They bored me.  And I honestly don't think I would ever want to finish them because I know what I like to write about now, and those earlier stories don't fall into that category.

You remember when you thought you wanted to be a teacher or construction worker or fireman and you spent a day or month or year shadowing or even working alongside people in that profession?  And you remember when you realized that is so not what you want to do with your life?  And then you moved on and discovered your real dream job?  That's what my earlier stories did for me.  I realized that's not what I want to write about, or how I want to write.  And I was able to put them aside and pick up a storyline and style that I did enjoy.

Now I have to figure out what to tell you next time.  Oh boy.