Lessons Learned: Take One

Talking to a friend the other day, a startling realization bonked me right on the nose.

I am not the only one who has felt
they were doing this thing called writing wrong.

There is a bit of mystic surrounding the art of writing. Editors, literary agents, and professional writers make it appear not only easy, but as if there was a formula to writing the perfect novel.  Not to mention, the countless books out there declaring they can teach you how to write a bestseller by means of charting your rise in tension, plotting out your pacing, developing your characters, and setting the perfect scene, just add in a dash of witty dialogue and you're sure to be a hit.

Oh, yeah, of course.  Now that you've pointed that out, I am sure to succeed. [insert headdesk]

And while you can gain an overwhelming amount of insight from these books, there really is nothing that will help you more than simply reading and writing. In fact, if you were to believe the words of my favorite English professor you might give some thought to tossing all those self-help books aside. His belief-- you are either a writer or you aren't. It cannot be taught or forced. It either is or it isn't. fin.

In summation:

There's no big secret to writing.

You just do it.

This line of thinking was something of a revelation for me. It freed me from all my prior worries. See, the stories in my head, they are mine and I get to decide how to transfer them onto paper.

If that means writing is a mad dash of inspiration that consumes a person like a raging wildfire, so be it. Or a writer can choose to plot things out meticulously, keeping notebooks filled with character traits and post-it notes filled with last minute thoughts and details. And if none of this appeals to a writer, they are free to find their own way, their own style. The sky is the limit.

I'm not saying we can't learn from professional writers, literary agents, editors, publishers, bloggers, creative writing classes, conferences, and books on writing. In fact, I think it is incredibly important to strengthen your skillz of a writer by soak up all the information and knowledge from others that you can. I haunt multiple blogs on writing, plus pick up books on writing all the time from the library. I believe one of the best things I ever did for my writing was work toward the associates I earned last fall.

What I am say is writing is personal. It's a passion, an itch that must be scratched, and how you go about scratching it is completely up to you. Don't worry about doing it the right or wrong way, realize the only way that matters is your way and hone your skills by reading and writing daily.

The goal must remain pure and simple -- to write. Not to become a bestselling author and by extension become rich and famous, but to write for fun, for the love of it, for yourself. You owe it to yourself to get the stories in your brain-brain out. Worry about all the rest of the mumbo-jumbo afterward. And leave all the worrying about writing a bestseller to the pros. There is something freeing and incredibly wonderful about being an amateur.

I think Jeff Herman in his book Guide to Book, Publishers, Editors, & Literary Agents 2011 sums it up best:

"Not knowing that there's a lot you don't know is empowering. Being ignorant won't hold you back from entering the contest but feeling ignorant can be paralyzing. Many people achieve the biggest strides, and experience the greatest satisfaction of their lives, when engaged in something completely new. Ignorance is an opportunity for innovation, because you haven't been corrupted with a litany of dissuasion about what "can't be done," or how it "must be done." You're a clean vessel with the power to recreate reality."

 He goes on further to say:

"Whatever happens to you belongs to you."

I really like the sound of that.

How about you?