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Happy December Everyone!
Are you looking forward to this month? To whatever it is you
have planned? I am and I’m not. It is coming way too fast, but I will get to
see a lot of my family over the holidays.
Recently a friend of mine wrote to me, to a group of us, and
gave some inspirational thoughts that I have since made it mandatory to read
every day before I start writing. I wanted to share her words with you.
I have
found this year that I’ve fallen in and out of love with writing and when I finally
(just recently) sat myself down and really thought through why this was
happening, especially the falling out part, I realized it’s mainly because I
changed the emphasis on WHY I wrote. It was no longer about me expressing myself.
It was to please others, to write what would “sell.” I gave up on my love of
creating and subjugated it to what other’s said to do or not to do. My inner editor
took over and told me, “Don’t use ‘just’ anymore. Don’t use commas in place of
periods. Don’t use adjectives. Don’t make it too long. Don’t this, don’t that.
I lost my love of writing trying to follow all the rules. I forgot
all the amazing examples there are of writers out there who broke those same rules.
Then, all these memes and articles started showing up on
line everywhere; in other’s blog posts, on FB and in my friend’s letter, all
with the same message. I realized what she wrote is what I needed to read out
loud to myself every day. I hope it touches some of you the way it did me and
helps to bring back your love of your art, whatever type of art that is.
"I will create,
and I will do it for my own benefit. I allow me to express myself in whatever
way my heart wishes to express itself. I allow myself to be free (for this hour, or session, or ten minutes, or whatever time you are devoting to it)".
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year. I wish you
all good things and, to embrace your art…
IWSG Question for December: What are five objects we'd find in your writing space?
Eyeglasses, lots of pens/pencils, post-it notes, a keyboard, a computer. Pretty typical, I'd say!
Please visit our lovely co-hosts for this month....
For the December 5 posting of the IWSG our co-hosts are
Such good advice. Write for yourself, for the fun of writing. Forget those "rules" and write from your heart. Merry Christmas to you.
ReplyDeleteSince I keep getting stuck, I need to remember that.
ReplyDeleteThat's something we all need to remember. We are writing first and foremost for the joy of it.
ReplyDeleteGreat quote! It is hard to remember what writing is about and not look at sales, publishing and all of those things. Happy writing!
ReplyDeleteExcept for my eyeglasses which are almost always on my face, I have all those things on my desk that you mentioned. Unfortunately a lot of my pens tend to get dried up because I rarely use them for much anymore.
ReplyDeleteI'm not overly thrilled about this holiday season as I'm not going to be seeing any of my kids or grandkids. We've postponed our next back East trip until summer. Guess I'll mostly be staying home which is okay with me.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
I agree that we're much better writers when we write from the heart! I'm glad you've found the key to get back into it!
ReplyDeleteYour friend hit it solidly on the head. I'm glad you shared it here today.
ReplyDeleteHi Lisa. Thanks for visiting my sci-fi story. Now that isn't something I wrote for myself, but I had heaps of fun. I break a lot of writing rules since all the best-selling authors I buy don't seem to worry about the position of 'as' in a sentence, or sentence fragments, or some telling not showing here or there. But I fear if I wrote just for myself, I'd never sell anything. Not that I've tried to sell much, but my time is coming. Meanwhile, I spend a lot of time writing what I want until my crit partners slam me...
ReplyDeleteI, too, write for my own heart not for sales (which have joined the endangered species category). But that is all right: it lifts the pressure of trying to please. May your Christmas be one for the books ... in a good way! :-)
ReplyDeleteSo far I write for me as I have not master pleasing the masses. I like your words. Happy IWSG DAy.
ReplyDeleteGreat words from your friend!
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas and Happy New Year, Lisa!
ReplyDeleteThose are wise words. I've definitely fallen out of love as well. I believe it happened when writing became work, with deadlines attached, and it was no longer something I did strictly for fun.
I still break the rules, but I know that whenever I do, I'm going to be "punished" by certain reviewers who like everything tied up in a neat bow, or who expect stories to follow certain well-worn tropes. I'll still tell a story my way, but I wonder how long it will be before those comments start influencing the way I write as well.
I write for myself, so it seems like a good advice, but in reality, I think it depends on your goals. If you want to write for fun, as a hobby, do it, and to hell with the consequences. Don't even try to sell your writing, because you'll be inevitably disappointed. But if you want to write professionally, you have to approach it in a professional way.
ReplyDeleteMany writers make the mistake of trying to combine the two: writing for themselves and selling. You know, like killing two birds with the same arrow. Sadly, for most, it is not possible. It is definitely not possible for me: I write for myself, but I've come to realize that my stories don't sell well, precisely because I write for one reader only: me.
Writing and editing rules can really suppress us. We have to remember to shut that off while we create, then turn it back on when we revise.
ReplyDeleteFor me, enjoyment is the key factor. Writing should never become a chore.
ReplyDeleteHappy Holidays, Lisa!