
So, you are a writer. Lucky you! We all know it’s a hard life, so I don’t want to focus on that. I want to focus on the brilliant, luminescent, glittering gifts that writing brings to the writer because you will need that glitter when it gets long, hard, and boring. Here’s where I am and what I’ve learned. As a writer:
1. You get to discover your soul. You get to burrow deep inside and find out who you really are, what your story is, and whether you’ve got the courage to tell it.
2. You are the one who will learn the most. As John Updike said, if we wanted to “purvey our opinions” we’d become preachers or politicians. Writers are artists, and your best work will be journeys of discovery in which you will likely learn more than your reader.
3. You get to experience creativity in the most amazing way: word by word, moment by moment. You get to forge an alliance with the Great Creator and play on the page.
4. You get to experience the benefits of working things out on paper. Even if no one sees your work, it’s therapeutic and free.
5. The future belongs to you because you are writing your future. You are literally changing reality with every word you write. With every word you write you finish a sentence; with every sentence, a chapter; with every chapter, a book or project; and with every project you finish, you touch people and change their lives, and you’ve changed yours along the way. Start where you are and write your future.
6. You get to play every day. As Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” What are you waiting for? Go play!
7. If you break-up with your significant other, you can write out your pain in a new story, or kill him off. “I will eviscerate you in fiction. Every pimple, every character flaw. I was naked for a day; you will be naked for eternity.” (Geoffrey Chaucer, “A Knight’s Tale,” in Canterubry Tales.)
8. Ideas come at any time – in the shower, while you’re driving, while you are waiting in the doctor’s office, or on the beach. You can work while on vacation. Or not.
9. Life always dishes up new fodder; or, as Patricia Raybon says, “Life pays dividends for writers.”
10. If you’re lucky, you learn to give up fear and to just put your work out there.
So, write on, fellow writers, and enjoy the gifts that come your way!
#defylabels #amwriting #authoradvocate
©SharonCairnsMann
1. You get to discover your soul. You get to burrow deep inside and find out who you really are, what your story is, and whether you’ve got the courage to tell it.
2. You are the one who will learn the most. As John Updike said, if we wanted to “purvey our opinions” we’d become preachers or politicians. Writers are artists, and your best work will be journeys of discovery in which you will likely learn more than your reader.
3. You get to experience creativity in the most amazing way: word by word, moment by moment. You get to forge an alliance with the Great Creator and play on the page.
4. You get to experience the benefits of working things out on paper. Even if no one sees your work, it’s therapeutic and free.
5. The future belongs to you because you are writing your future. You are literally changing reality with every word you write. With every word you write you finish a sentence; with every sentence, a chapter; with every chapter, a book or project; and with every project you finish, you touch people and change their lives, and you’ve changed yours along the way. Start where you are and write your future.
6. You get to play every day. As Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” What are you waiting for? Go play!
7. If you break-up with your significant other, you can write out your pain in a new story, or kill him off. “I will eviscerate you in fiction. Every pimple, every character flaw. I was naked for a day; you will be naked for eternity.” (Geoffrey Chaucer, “A Knight’s Tale,” in Canterubry Tales.)
8. Ideas come at any time – in the shower, while you’re driving, while you are waiting in the doctor’s office, or on the beach. You can work while on vacation. Or not.
9. Life always dishes up new fodder; or, as Patricia Raybon says, “Life pays dividends for writers.”
10. If you’re lucky, you learn to give up fear and to just put your work out there.
So, write on, fellow writers, and enjoy the gifts that come your way!
#defylabels #amwriting #authoradvocate
©SharonCairnsMann