Close it, resist it, put it down!
How high can you stack 'em?
I moved forward in many ways as a writer in 2009. I read many books on writing – even though it’s kind of been my thing since I was little. I was fully confident of my voice in high school, which, I know, isn’t unusual for a teenager. I have an English degree, and have taught writing and literature in Junior High and High School. This last year I attended a conference at BYU for Writers and Illustrators of Children’s Books in June.
I had a glorious flash of insight for a novel while camping in July. And since fiction has never been my genre of choice, I completed a Fiction Writing on-line course from a prof at UCLA.
I read and I read and I read.
And yet…….my submissions for all 365 days of 2009 came to a grand total of three. Three children’s book manuscripts that I completed for the conference in Provo.
So this year, I’ve tweaked my writing goals. First, I’m banning books.
This year, I’m going to stop reading so much (I never thought I’d pen those words). I’m going to write. I’m banning the books and learning to listen to and trust my own words. I am trying to live this year without books, although a few always creep in around my desk, nightstand, chair, etc., etc. I’m trying to get after and pen what I, me, Barbara-Beyer-Albright, really thinks, feels, observes, and synthesizes. Being unconscious about how we feel and what we honestly think, is dangerous.
My mother gave me a book years ago, written by Dorothea Brande more than 70 years ago, and I framed the following from Ms Brande:
If you are going to write,
you must become aware of this richness in you
and come to believe in it and know it is there
so that you can write opulently and with self-trust.
If you once become aware of it, have faith in it.
You will be all right.
But it is like this:
If you have a million dollars in the bank and don’t know it,
it doesn’t do you any good.
I’ve been lazy about my writing. And there’s fear. There is no guaranteed outcome (or income) with writing. But I realize, in looking back over the last year, that spending the money on classes and books and conferences won’t craft a finished piece. I actually have to write. I’m doing it right now. How about that?
Be opulent. Hear and trust your way of looking at life. It will resonate with others and that, I remind myself, is the real gift of writing.
