Get your head out of the clouds. I heard this a lot growing up in one form or another from adults in my life. What they didn’t understand was that I couldn’t help myself. My mind created worlds and scenarios that quite honestly were more interesting than what was happening around me. I was lost because I couldn’t turn it off, until someone introduced me to writing.
Discovering the Power of Writing
I don’t remember who it was, I don’t remember when it happened and I don’t remember how it happened. I do, however, remember the feelings of satisfaction and relief and fear when the story was finally out of my head. Satisfaction because the story finally had a conclusion; in my head it just kept swirling endlessly. Relief because I could engage with the real world again (until the next story came). And fear that no one would want to read it or like it.
My Teenage Writing Journey
I started writing in my teens and I wrote and wrote. To be honest, I don’t think anything I wrote back then was good I had no life experience. But at least I had time to ‘engage with the world’. This wasn’t all it was hyped up to be; heartbreaks, losses, disappointments and the mundaneness of life itself dried me up. I couldn’t write and so I didn’t write anything for over a decade.
Returning to Writing with Maturity
When I turned something something years old, I decided to return to my ‘youthful passions’. Honestly, I didn’t think taking up writing again would be so hard. It took about four false starts before I could fill a page and to me it was all junk. It was like my creativity had dug a cave in the back of my mind and got so comfy there that nothing would bring it back out.
Finding Inspiration and Learning from the Best
Thankfully, I had maturity and the internet on my side. I took classes by amazing writers like James Patterson and Margaret Atwood to phenomenal teachers from LinkedIn and Udemy. Side note: taking the classes is easy, the actual writing, not so much. The advice they gave ranged from ‘read more to write more, good or bad writing, read it anyway’ to ‘make it a discipline, write for at least fifteen minutes a day’ to ‘change locations and write from a different viewpoint’. They are all great pieces of advice.
The Advice That Changed Everything
The piece of advice that got me started was a series of questions coupled with a mix of some of the others. The questions were: Do you have something to say? (the correct answer is yes); Next, will what you say help one other person? (Hopefully, you can say yes to this too); Lastly, can anyone else say what you have to say like you can say it? (the correct answer is no). If you answered all the questions correctly…
Find a space, set a time and say it like only you can. It just might be the right stuff.
Wattpad Pick of the Week:
This is a story about love and family and romance and choosing partners and everything in between. I read first read it on here and then proceeded to read all the books in The Summerhills series. If you have sisters (like I do) you’ll find the characters relatable. If you don’t, you’ll see what it would be like to have them.
Book Says What?:
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
This is a biography that reads like a work of fiction. I like bios because they allow you to step out of your own life, if you will, and grow up and live in someone else’s shoes. I cried with her, I hid with her, and I loved with her. It’s an amazing read, I hope you read it and if you do, let me know what you think.
On Blast...:
I love reading inspirational blogs. Any suggestions on some I can binge on? Let me know in the comments.
I’d like to highlight
R. Thomas; I quite like his poetry. Also Faded Houses Green has some awesome short stories. And of course, DirtySciFiBuddha; I like his
musings.
Thank you for spending time with me. Until our next bookish adventure…😜
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