JUST WRITE!
"Just write, don't think!" (Natalie Goldberg)
I don't know if you have read writing books by Natalie Goldberg or not. If not, you should. My favorite, "Writing Down the Bones (Feeling the Writer Within)is her oldest book on writing. Old in publication (1986) but the information, guidance, and shared secrets of creativity are timeless. She tells us to take ourself to a cafe, a library, park bench or the swing on the porch with pen and pad, or laptop these days. And write. That's where her quote comes from. She says we think too much before we write; in order to warm up for the good stuff, to maybe find a new idea or theme, we should just write, not think.
I also like the fact that Goldberg tells attendees of her workshops that the main thing wrong with their writing is the fact that they have to become "uneducated." She is a firm believer that we have all learned to write in the wrong way for the wrong reasons. This book is one you can refer to again and again to "reeducate yourself."
You can write novels, short stories, proposals for nonfiction books, and pages of poetry. I have done all of these. But it never becomes easy--or easier. Like most writers, I go through my periods of cleaning my office, finding the right color pen or dusting off my chair. In other words, I am procrastinating, dragging my feet, doing anything so I don't have to sit down and face that blank screen.
No one can write your book or short story or article or poem for you. You have to "sit butt in chair and write" as I often tell students. Never fail to write something each day if at all possible. The writing you don't do today, is lost forever. The words you put down tomorrow may be good but you'll never know what today's work would have looked like.
The art of writing well tomorrow may depend on what you wrote today. Write!
I don't know if you have read writing books by Natalie Goldberg or not. If not, you should. My favorite, "Writing Down the Bones (Feeling the Writer Within)is her oldest book on writing. Old in publication (1986) but the information, guidance, and shared secrets of creativity are timeless. She tells us to take ourself to a cafe, a library, park bench or the swing on the porch with pen and pad, or laptop these days. And write. That's where her quote comes from. She says we think too much before we write; in order to warm up for the good stuff, to maybe find a new idea or theme, we should just write, not think.
I also like the fact that Goldberg tells attendees of her workshops that the main thing wrong with their writing is the fact that they have to become "uneducated." She is a firm believer that we have all learned to write in the wrong way for the wrong reasons. This book is one you can refer to again and again to "reeducate yourself."
You can write novels, short stories, proposals for nonfiction books, and pages of poetry. I have done all of these. But it never becomes easy--or easier. Like most writers, I go through my periods of cleaning my office, finding the right color pen or dusting off my chair. In other words, I am procrastinating, dragging my feet, doing anything so I don't have to sit down and face that blank screen.
No one can write your book or short story or article or poem for you. You have to "sit butt in chair and write" as I often tell students. Never fail to write something each day if at all possible. The writing you don't do today, is lost forever. The words you put down tomorrow may be good but you'll never know what today's work would have looked like.
The art of writing well tomorrow may depend on what you wrote today. Write!
posted by Barb | 9:44 PM
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