NOTE: The FREE PDF for writer’s groups (and the accompanying book-length handbook) are in final editing, just days from being posted - all permissions received. Look for posting within 10 days.
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“The writer seeks, and then must deal, with empty time.”
I don’t recall the first time I saw the above quote, nor do I remember it’s source. I do remember that, when I first saw it, I knew exactly what it meant. We writers will bemoan endlessly the lack of time to do the writing we need to do, and then, when we have it, find any number of other things to do instead - laundry, errands, dusting, organizing files, alphabetizing books or CDs or recipes - anything to avoid the challenges, the discomfort, of facing that blank page and the endlessly-blinking cursor. We are world-champion procrastinators and apologists.
And we know it. In those alone moments, when there is no one to whom we need to justify our
And here I am to say: GET OVER IT.
As a popular meme says, there are two steps to writing a novel (or a story or an article): Step One: start writing. Step Two: There IS no step two
I’m not saying the fear isn’t real. I’m not saying it is not paralyzing and debilitating. It is. So is the fear of a woman going into labor, or a soldier going into battle, or of any of us going into a job interview, or a first date, or a dentist appointment, for Christ sake. The empty page is as frightening to the writer as any of these, and yet….. And yet, it is the only way to become the writer you want to be. So you must find a way to do as I said: get over it.
There’s lots of advice out there on how to do that - strategies, tricks, mental training, meditation, finger exercises --- strategies ad nauseum. They are all fine, but won’t get you to the page until you do two things:
BE BRAVE..
Yes, easier said than done. There is, in my experience, one fool-proof way to help anyone find their courage. Joseph Campbell, the mythologist and philosopher, once offered it as advice to his students: consult your death. We are all, at some point, leaving this earth. When it is over for you, what kind of person do you want to be remembered as? (Yes, I know I ended a sentence with a preposition - get over that, too.) A friend of my sister (also a writer) once said to her: “Do you want to leave this earth without having said what you need to say?” They are the same sentiment. Some writing students have told me that
And, second: DO IT.
Sit down every day and write words - word after word after word - on your paper. You will fail. You will fail mightily. You will get rejections, editors remarks will pierce your soul. But if you truly wish to write, that is the rite of passage. As Hemingway once said - the world breaks everyone, and afterwards, some are strong at the broken places. If you want to be a strong writer, you must face those broken places, open to them, and put their story on the page - every day.
What the truly great writers tell us, if we really listen to their words, is that the world doesn’t need a writer who is market-savvy - the world needs the hard, brutal, soul-wrenching, beautiful truth. This means finding what you have to say, the one thing that is yours to say, and then bucking up your courage and saying it. Be brave. Do it.
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Launch date for the FREE PDF and “RiverWords” book: October 29th. Look for the link here and on my website.
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