Hello lovely readers,
I am happy to announce my second guest blogger. YEAH! Please welcome Kimberly from
Here's What I think About That.
She has an opinion on just
about everything and is happy to share them with anyone that will listen (or
read).
I have so enjoyed this Blaire's blog. I’m so
delighted to be a guest. As I thought about what I wanted to write, the thing
that kept coming to me was I wanted to talk about writing. Specifically my
writing story.
I used to journal writing intermittently in my adolescence.
I struggled with being “real” in my personal writing. I really wanted to avoid
the angst filled teenage diary. Not sure what that was about. Perhaps I
was self censoring because of the thought that one day my diary would be
discovered.
Also, there was a period of time that was so deeply sad that to
write about it felt like a betrayal. And to write about anything else felt like
a different betrayal. –You know in sitcoms when a girlfriend tells
the boyfriend something sad (like a couple their friends broke up). The
girlfriend is clearly upset and wants to commiserate. The boyfriend? Not
so much. He’s like, are you gonna finish your pie? And she’s like: how can you
think about food at a time like this? It was like that.
Many years ago, I went to see Anne Lamott speak about writing.
[Side note: If you get the chance to see her speak, take it! ] I fell in love
with her when I read “Operating Instructions” a story about the first year of
her son’s life. I absolutely loved this book. It captured the sweetness and the
raw emotions that are mothering. Anyway...I remember her saying that we should
do two things in life: 1) Always eat dessert. (Because life is
short). And 2) write as though your family is already dead. –That seems a
little harsh. I really wanted to paraphrase that to say “family will never read
this”, but she really said “dead”. I suppose the writing would be different if
you wrote as if they were dead. To be honest, I have not been able to do that.
I can’t. –So okay, although I’m a writer, I’m not an Anne Lamott writer.
Natalie Goldberg, in "Writing Down the Bones" says, “Go
for the jugular”. Write about the thing that hurts. And go all the way.
Eeek. I don’t like this advice either.
So, I SAY, “Write what you want to write”.
And, if you don’t want to write about sad things...don’t. If you do want to
write about sad things...do.
Many “how to write” writers say “if you can talk, you can write”.
Everyone has the right to create. There are no special skills and no secret society
that decides if you are worthy to be a writer. If you want to write and you write, then you are a writer.
My day job (career) is not writing but writing has helped me in
everything I do. Writing has helped me formulate my ideas and be able to articulate
them to others. {I write out my thoughts before a meeting so that I feel
prepared. –I don’t have to take the notes into the meeting...it is the
writing that makes me confident that I understand the issues and can present my
thoughts.}
Away from work, I always wrote letters (epic)! I wrote
Newsletters: (Christmas Newsletters, Church News Letters, Book Club
Newsletters). If I was participating in something I was always happy to be the
scribe.
Then one day, someone asked me point blank: “Are you a writer”.
Wow! That question was a turning point. Was I going to go public with it?
“Yes”, I said, “yes I am”.
Since then I began to take my writing more seriously. I write more
often and take advantage of more writing opportunities. I even wrote for
my employer's magazine. {That was exhilarating and scary at the same
time. It was a slick magazine shared through out the entire company.}
I participated in the National Novel Writing Month. Yes, I
completed a work of fiction. It is something I wouldn't share with anyone in
its current state. But I actually challenged myself and now have an IDEA
{only an idea} of what it takes to write the first draft of a novel.
Someone I knew once said, "If something is worth doing, it's
worth doing badly." I thought I had misheard until he went on to explain:
Many of us are frozen, afraid to do something poorly. When, if it is
really worth doing, it is worth doing regardless of the end result. First
attempts are not supposed to be perfect. We miss a lot of life {and a lot of
writing} by holding ourselves to high standards before we even begin.
So I say to you: Write Often and Write On! What's
more, I say: ENJOY the process.
