When all around you are saying No
It’s not so easy to write when there are other things to get done. When all around you are saying NO that truly tests whether we can persist with our writing.
Opposition is helpful. It empowers us to clarify what is important to us, and why. It helps us to articulate our reasons, and to defend our choices. So be grateful for the critics! But do not allow them to undermine your own authentic choices. (Not those decisions that are dictated by necessity and expectation, as much as those that colour our lives.)
It may not always be easy to know why, or indeed how, we should write. So, if you need encouragement, here are a few easy tips to help focus on the daily task of writing, and get some done each day.
When we are in the mood, we can write five words, and make them meaningful. Then we write the next ten. Then one paragraph, then a second, then to the end of the page. Just keep going to the end of the line, the next paragraph, and before we know it, we will have the equivalent of a short story, or the first chapter of a novel or memoir.
I started writing because these pictures were coming into my head that I could feel and taste. As I allowed that process space to unfold, gradually, scenes from my past opened up to me as I was writing, and brought with them a vast store of memories I had forgotten, in sequences that may not have been perfect, but were a good place to start. Perhaps that will happen to you, or perhaps you will find that the information comes to you as you write words on the page.
What matters most is the decision and the follow-through.
Thanks so much for reading!
Please share:
December 10, 2017 @ 9:41 pm
Thanks for these encouraging words! I think I have some catching up to do. ❤️
December 11, 2017 @ 9:23 am
And thank you for all your comments too! 🙂 P’raps the best thing is to have as much fun as possible while we can. To be as happy as time and circumstances allow, seems to me to honour our purposes in being here. 🙂 Bless you.
December 11, 2017 @ 11:15 am
I wonder do you write to convey an experience of yours or is it imitation of life you put on words. Words are means of communication at everyday life, but when in the imaginary world of fiction, it borrows bearing or shades that store experiences. Thank you for allowing your followers to what you call caveats, to think of you and of what you write.
December 11, 2017 @ 12:33 pm
Thank you so much for visiting my blog, Wadjih.
I think we write both to convey experience and to portray life, yes indeed. In many ways, memoir mirrors fiction. And we know that we write fiction best when we write from our experience of life, so there are many shades of reality.
December 17, 2017 @ 3:37 am
Powerful words, and very wise. Don’t forget, or lose, your authentic voice.
December 19, 2017 @ 9:03 pm
Thanks so much, Piper, and thanks for visiting! I find that when I am happy and not thinking about what anyone else thinks, the writing, editing and all the rest flow so much easier. It is the work of a life to refine our writing voice(s) our styles. :-))