Ahhh! This is a wonderful tip! If only it were so easy.
One of the biggest challenges of writing is to recreate the exact vision we have in our minds. Our final draft never comes out exactly as we imagined. We usually end up with another version of our original idea.
It’s frustrating, but we must accept this as part of the process. If not, it can hold us up indefinitely.
Have you ever captured your story just right?
Happy Writing,
Christa
We talked about this in the post about all the nasties you write. So many people feel fear and shame about their pasts. Yeah, we screw up. We have regrets, but many of us own guilt that isn’t ours. We hold back in our writing because we don’t want anyone to know our secrets.
We’re all doing the best we can in life, and when we make mistakes, it’s often because we’re acting on the wrong information. Then we learn from our experience and move on.
Don’t be afraid to write about what scares you or makes you ashamed. In writing the truth, you will help someone else who was waiting to hear that they were not the only person in the world who made the same mistake.
I think one of the worst things for writing is thinking too much. Our thinking brain is great for clean up, but it will put up a block whenever we do something out of the norm, unexpected, or that breaks the rules.
Thinking brain will say, no, you can’t do that.
Don’t think of the words you should be using. Don’t think of anything. Connect to the mental movie and write down what you see.
Don’t try to make it happen. Let it happen. It already exists in the future. Let it become what it wants to be.
Happy Writing,
Christa
Do you ever feel like you have nothing to write about and wonder how you’re going to fill the blank space? Then you sit down and begin, the words don’t stop flowing?
We often have stories percolating in our mind without even being aware of them. They might seem like mirages, vague impressions.
We usually wait for the image to sharpen before we begin writing. This can cause us to stall on an idea and lose the compulsion to write it altogether.
We don’t have to wait to we have every detail of a book mapped out before we decide to write it. Sometimes the only way to bring a story into focus is to get it out so we can read it back to ourselves.
So take that leap of faith. Sit down and struggle to sketch the flow that already exists intact in mind.
Happy Writing,
Christa
For a long time, I was spiritually dead. If I couldn’t see it, taste it, touch it, or explain it, it wasn’t real. The only place I felt something holy was when I was writing. Something mysterious happens during the creative process. Many artists feel more like conduits than creators.
I’ve written myself through many personal struggles. Each time, it feels like I’ve written my way back home. Every character, every scene, every resolution brings me one step closer to reintegrating with myself.
Just because we don’t understand our existence, just because it seems like a cold evolutionary process that will be pointless as the sun absorbs the earth, doesn’t mean there isn’t some divine plan being executed, some beautiful piece of music being played out. It just means we can’t fully discern it yet.
But the holy contour of life is there, and we sketch it out every time we write.
Happy Writing,
—Christa
What are your thoughts?
I took a few days off from this blog and from working on my WIP to reflect on the past and recover enough strength to continue. It’s funny because I wondered what I would write for this quote about loss and I realize I’ve been swimming in it.
I’m working on a book right now that includes a character who was inspired by someone close to me, one who is no longer breathing. He died a tragic senseless death and I was always angry with him for that.
Now he is back in painful detail. The wound is reopened. Blood seeps out. But by writing about him, I get to be with him again. I create new experiences with him. I can make him live forever in my readers’ minds.
When we write, we are our god selves. We have the power to set the world right. We can heal ourselves and give comfort to others.
We must accept loss forever, but through storytelling, we have a chance to turn it into something beautiful. We can make meaning out of meaninglessness. We can exist beyond death.
Has writing helped you cope with loss?
–Christa