Don't think, write!
Patti M Hall
Author + Writing Coach + Publishing Strategist. Creative Non-Fiction Writing Professor at Sheridan College.
If you have time to question whether you're a writer or not, you aren't tapping into the creative tap.
I wear a lot of hats in the creative world where my business and I live.
My writer hat is dusty though.
I don’t write much lately, yet I build a lot of books, sherpa myriad stories, nudge great proposals toward waiting agents, and birth ideas with brave writers from the thinnest-shelled, nearly-blue-with-translucence eggs of wonder and imagination.
It leaves me wondering about calling myself a writer, sometimes.?Am I still? Am I still one if I’m not writing anything right now, lately, this afternoon, at the moment? Are you? Are they?
With my coaching hat poised precariously on my head, I lean into what I would say to a writer who came to me with this vexation. First off, the question would be different, and in my experience, likely wouldn’t be a question at all. Many seeking and yearning authors start with the statement -?I’m no writer, Patti,?followed by suggesting an action of cessation like,?I should just stop, dontcha think??I conjure my oft-used, irreverent retort:?“If you want to.”
Followed by, “But can you?” and “Could you stop being a writer?” and “What would that even look like?”
If you’re the person on the other side of the coaching screen, this 2 x 4 slam did its whammy work, and you have no reply. Of course you can’t stop. You have no clue what not writing would look like.
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Writers write. They can’t NOT write.
Back to wearing my writer hat—if I have time to be wondering if I’m still a writer, imagine the content I might have been creating from that energy instead. Argh! Oh, and I say this here for all of us—writing is NOT word count, marks on a pages of letters organized on your device…it’s the embodied art that reveals itself in the recesses of your mind.
Writing is a product of energy too… so be wary where you give yourself away.
Today I will write this blog and not give my creative energy to a question that I already know the answer to, and so do you (say it with me): Yes, I am a writer.
(drop it in the comments, so I can high-five you.)
If you love what I’m sharing here, pass this on to someone.
Or ask them to Subscribe and please put their “Yes, I am a writer" in the notes below so I can say Hi. (Thankee).
Helping first-time and (often) only time writers via coaching, editing, ghostwriting, and book production to produce the book they so dream of.
2 年Like you, I am busily involved with helping people write their memoirs—sometimes to the detriment of my own writing. ("The cobbler's children go barefoot!") Two decisions have been helpful: 1. Commit to write for 30 minutes minimum daily. This is sometimes first thing in the morning before heading to my office or in the evening after a day's work. Overtime, 30 minutes daily can produce much. 2. Be sure to pay myself first as I go to the office. Write my"own work" first and then move on to billable time. This is really more difficult for me, and I usually do better with 30 minutes sometime early or late in the day. I find I feel better when I do some writing daily. I am about to finish my early childhood memoir, French Boy. Much of it was written in 30-minute blocks with weekend pushes.
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2 年Yes, ma’am!