three things about writing

My sweet friend Pixie has asked me to write about writing. Three things. Tips, I think she called them. I hardly feel like I can be dishing out tips about writing, because I am only just beginning to take it seriously enough to even consider calling myself a writer. But I can say I write every day, and maybe that's enough in some way.

So I have just stated my first of three things...do it every day. With just about everything I can think of that requires practice, a daily habit of it is key to getting better at it. Anybody who wants to write can write...but they have to do it. It gets easier. I will even say that there comes a point after a long run of dailiness that you don't even have to wonder what you are going to write about. I don't believe in writer's block. I think it's a grand and romantic excuse. I promise you if you just sit down and start moving the pen on paper, or pressing the keys with your fingers...words will come. Even if they are not the words you wished would come. And try to do it at around the same time everyday. It's kind of like muscle memory. Once you start and keep at it for a while you will feel like you've missed a few meals if you are kept away from it for any reason at all. If you really want to write, if you really love writing, it becomes as important to you as air and water.

That leads me to the second thing I've learned. Not everything you write is going to be good. Not at all. And you know what? That's okay. Because, as some wise person once said, you have to make a lot of messes before you make a masterpiece. Because, I promise you, even amidst the mess you will find little threads that lead you to something better. The important thing is that you write something, and that you do it everyday. Even for fifteen minutes. Even if it's a string of uninspired sentences of things that happened or things you want to write about when you are feeling more writerly. Even if you transcribe something that someone else wrote that has inspired you and then you write down your own thoughts about it. Keep a small notebook with you always so that whenever you have an idea, or overhear some good conversation, or notice something interesting, you can write it down. Never trust yourself to remember something long enough to write it down later. It just doesn't happen. At least not for me...and I have lost a lot of good ideas that way. The little notebook also becomes an inspiration pod the next time you sit down to write. You can browse through it and take the small ideas and make them bigger. And don't edit yourself...put it all down. You can always go back and hack through the thick and unruly grasses later. Just get it down, good, bad or ugly.

And the last thing I've learned about writing is...you have to read. More than you write. Read anything and everything, yes, but also read the great writers that have left their mark for us all to gather from. Listen to audio-books when you are driving or taking a bath. And while I am all about reading for enjoyment, every now and then you need to read like a writer. You have to read critically and pick things apart and really think about why specific decisions were made about words and plot and what was told and what was not told. Read Chekhov. Read lots of Chekhov. Find the list of the 100 greatest books ever written and choose three or four a year. Make outlines of them. Copy down the sentences that make your heart beat faster because they are so incredibly full of truth and beauty and elegance and then write your own in imitation. We learn from imitation. Don't be afraid to do that. Mary Oliver says that for years she would copy down, word for word, line by line the sonnets of Keats just to get the feel of his perfect rhythm into her bones. Jane Kenyon did it, too. And then you take all that you gather from reading and imitating and you start writing pretty terrible imitations. But the magical part is that if you keep doing it...your own voice begins to emerge. It's all been done before folks...it's your individual voice and insight that makes it unique. Ask Robert Frost and John Keats to write a sonnet about snow using the same list of key words for each line and you would get two very different poems indeed. I don't care what anyone says, you have to be a reader to be a writer. I have never understood why anyone who doesn't crave a book would even consider wanting to write one. I mean why write a book if you don't love them? You have to be a reader to be a writer.

So there are my three things about writing. Nothing that has not been said a million times. Pretty basic, but indispensable advice that I have been given and that I have learned. Now I am supposed to pass it along to three others...and they would be Caroline, Darlene, and Misty.

Comments

[PixieDust]

Perfect, perfect, perfect... when I stopped writing for a while, it is true that it took quite a bit to "ease" back into it - the words would come but it was as if the actual, physical, process of writing slowed me down. I had to get back in the swing of allowing myself to let the words flow from head to pen, and not just head to dreams.

Love to you, Querida...

:-)

[Sharon]

As I read this, I thought about how your three things could also be applied to art. Paint or make art everyday. Study the masters and imatate them with sketches and paintings even knowing they may not be all that good. Even the part about carrying around a sketch book. Lastly, studying and picking apart a Klimt as just one example over and over again and each time finding something new give me great inspiration. Ant the greatest thing of all is that I can do this studying right her at the computer.
Enjoyed your post.

[caroline]

Thank you Kateri! I feel honoured that you passed that on to me. I've been thinking lots about how I write lately, so it's funny this should happen now. Sorry I haven't responded until now, I've been mulling it over though and am inspired to do it. :) x

[darlene]

these are wonderful tips, just wonderful ... i am going to have to think about what i want to say but will post sometime this week :) thanks for the tag honey, xo