When Sarah from That Space In Between mentioned she was starting a fortnightly What I Know About series and the first would be writing, I thought, Oh crap. That means I have to think of something to write. I can’t write…
What I know about writing is that sometimes the perfectionism of the true got-it-in-the-blood writer can so stifle the creative flow that they just… stop. Hit a wall. Freeze like a bunny in headlights.
The passion and need to write has always been in me. It’s a little-known fact that my first book was self-published and in the school library by the time I was eleven. Dad brought home a very special machine from work called a computer and told me that whatever I typed using the DOS-prompt screen could be printed out onto continuous-feed paper. Witchcraft!
My bestie at the time, Kirsty, had equal billing on the dust jacket. She provided the word, ‘virtually’ – a word her Dad suggested, a word we knew we HAD to use to be taken seriously as writers, a word that we both scrambled to the dictionary to find (was it spelled, ‘virchally’ or ‘vircherally’, and… what did it mean?). She also provided a real life pony as subject matter. See, the book was about a graceful horse named Tinnell (with the emphasis on the ‘ell’, not the Tin, as both my brothers used to infuriatingly get wrong), a horse who could talk. A direct rip-off of a combination of Mister Ed the TV series and Phar Lap, a movie I was enamoured with at the time, “Tinnell, the Thundering Lass” was sometimes confused for that other classic, Black Beauty. I know. Esteemed company.
Our parents encouraged and humoured us, the suggestion of a trip to the eastern suburbs office of Penguin Books was even entertained and I received a very encouraging rejection letter (awwww, my first! I should have it framed for posterity), probably from some office kid who was assigned the task of letting me down gently so as not to crush my ambition to one day be published.
I moved on from novel writing in high school to writing for the debate team. Now you really want to stuff my head down a toilet and call me a library lover, don’t you?
Look, I could give bullet-point tips that I come up with (or source and cite from elsewhere) but for me, writing has always been about passion. Expression. It is, quite literally, my lifeblood. With no fewer than three published authors in my family from generations past, how can it not be? When I read the letters of my great-great-great-great grandfather, Spencer, or the letters of my (unrelated to Spencer) great-grandfather, Edward, and the beautifully expressive way they both write to their wives, to name just two people in the family tree we are extremely lucky to learn a little about via their own words, I see that same passion. The same desire to express. And neither of these two people were the published authors.
When it’s in the blood, you don’t need How To Write tips and pointers. I don’t know how to start telling someone How To Write… it seems almost oxymoronic. But if there is just one thing I can impart that speaks to the one thing I appreciate about reading others’ writing, and the best gift a writer can give me, it is to truly
Write like nobody is going to read it
Have you written like no one is reading lately? Really?
Yes! I like this variation on the twee ‘dance like no one is watching’. I only dance so that people look at me. When I sat down to write my most I realised that the theme should have been ‘what I know about words’ because words and writing are two different things. I love words I like to touch them on the pages of the books I love, saying what I know about writing is a completely different thing. Thanks for thinking something up…being an author and all.
You know, I whipped this post up in less than 20 minutes WITH a full bladder. And I wrote-and-ran (had to get the girl to a doctor this morning). Amazing what comes out when you put your fingers to the keys sometimes!
I like! Can I use that line? It’s so true, when I write, it’s like I’m writing to a screenful of non-faces. If I thought it was going to be read by actual people, I’d get all serious and kind of stilted like and then I’d never be able to get any magic into my writing! Love your work Mrs, you’re keeping esteemed company alongside Spencer and Edward
Every single time, I lose the magic and really lose my one true voice (the only one I choose to use at this time in my life) when I think about my audience. It almost goes against what you hear at blog conferences and writing workshops, I know. But for me, I can get easily stunted when I think too much about eyes reading my words!
At the end of the day, whatever works to get your finest out of your soul and onto the paper (or screen)! Thank you for helping me clarify this, actually, Lisa. Because I’m certain Spencer and Edward had their audience firmly in their hearts and minds when they set about writing their letters home to their beloveds so in that regard, they were doing both simultaneously, right?! It can be done…
I write as if the words are being said out loud. I hear them more than write them… does that make me weird?
Nope. That’s like me, sometimes it’s like a movie script! The challenge I have is getting to something like a notepad or computer in time to jot down the ideas before I lose them again into the ether.
I LOVE that you have writers in the family!! My grandmother is a writer too – I definitely get it from her.
And I also love that adage of write like no one is reading. Honestly, I said that to someone today. Write because you CAN’T NOT WRITE … it is in your blood
Yes! That!
I love this idea of writing like no-one is going to read it. Anne Lamott gives similar advice when she says ignore all the relatives peering over your shoulder as you’re writing. This is something I struggle with. What a great tip!
Oh so true. I actually redrafted my entire manuscript after flicking off the various family ghosts from my shoulders.
What a fabulous way of looking at it. And I agree the passion and the desire to express definitely spurs my writing.
I have to consciously remind myself, though. Often. It’s easily forgotten or waylaid (like good old-fashioned just doing!).
Write like nobody is going to read it… what a pearl! I get so stifled when writing a novel that no-one can see, besides my evil inner critic, yet can bang out the most ridiculous blog post and not give a toss who sees it.
I can relate to that, Jayne (with a y!)
So damn true. I wrote my blog so differently when no one read it. And then it got outed by work mates and, you know what? It’s never been the same since. Hmm…
See? I know what you mean when you say this. It’s very hard, it sort of just creeps up on you. Then one day, BAM. You realise how much your writing has changed because you have written for so long as if (potentially) all the world will read what you’re saying.
That’s easy for me, because practically no one does. Which is just the way I like it
That’s awesome! It’s such a relief (and reward) when it all works according to plan.