The Write Way

Recently I had the amazing opportunity to discuss different writing processes with a few of my young readers. I realized as we talked how difficult it can be to not only write but also to share what we write with others. Whether or not you want to publish your writing, share it with close friends and family, or just keep it to yourself, writing your thoughts and feelings can reap huge personal rewards.

Mozart—"I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings."

How do you get started, and what are some things that might stop you?

Mozart apparently wrote most of his music down perfectly the first time without changing much. There were hardly any mistakes or crossed out notes in his manuscripts. Beethoven stewed over his symphonies, but he wrote 9 masterpieces eventually. Brahms struggled to write symphonies because he felt that he could never measure up to Beethoven and Mozart and those that had gone before. He threw away so many manuscripts in despair. He said, "To follow in Beethoven's footsteps transcends one's strength." Everyone has their own path to genius, but most of us are not Mozarts, and if we stress about getting it down perfect the first time, most of us will never write a thing. If you're into writing, you also probably consume a lot of books. The more books you read, the more aware you become of the level you want to write at—Brahms' syndrome. That level, and the level you are at with writing can seem pretty incompatible at times (at least they do to me).

Beethoven—"Don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the divine.”

When you play a song on an instrument, you are usually playing a song someone else has written. That's hard enough, and you feel vulnerable enough as a performer, especially when you play for someone who knows what it is supposed to sound like. But when you share stuff you've composed—or in the writer's world written—with other people it's a whole new level of vulnerable. Now they know your thoughts, your philosophies, your deepest-held secrets and beliefs. Even people that thought they knew you now know you in a different way. And that can be scary! I still blush when people tell me they've read a book I wrote.

If any of this rings true to you, I guess I'd encourage you to push through it and save everything you write, even if you don't show anyone else. It's important to do that because sometimes you'll think as you're writing, "This is terrible!" but then when you come back to it, you find you can tweak or change it and make it better, which is lots easier than starting over from scratch again, right? My friend Marilyn and I are writing a book together. We call this feeling of incompetence about something we've written "utter drivel (UD)." Sometimes when I write a new scene I'll tell her, "This is UD. Fix it!" And sometimes she will change it, or give me feedback on it, and other times she will reassure me that it isn't, in fact, UD.

Brahms—"Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind."

If I'm feeling stuck with my writing, instead of trying to start at the beginning of a story I often try just writing a scene or capturing an emotion or showing/exploring what a character is like. This could be at any point in the storyline. If you want to try this, just let yourself write and write without stopping or going back to correct it and write everything you know about what that scene should look like. Sounds, smells, any sensory details, what the character is feeling, thinking, etc. If you can't think of one, write a scene about you and some time/experience you've had. Whenever I do this it helps to unstopper my writer's block and open my creativity up once more. It's easy to get stale and trite with writing if you don't switch it up sometimes. Focus on a few paragraphs or a page to start with. Get it all out. If you feel like continuing, keep going! If you are excited to go back and see what you wrote and fine tune it, do that.

Brahms—"The idea comes to me from outside of me - and is like a gift. I then take the idea and make it my own - that is where the skill lies."

I think that the purpose of fiction is to help us look at our lives with different eyes and make discoveries that we haven't yet. Sometimes seeing things through the lens of a story apart from our own helps us see things more clearly than direct advice or being preached at. And if you are the one writing the story, you can choose what it is you want to understand better and focus on that. At least that's what I like doing.

What works for you? What helps you write when you're stuck or afraid?

Rachael