It's all sensible, reassuring, and helpful advice, Alison! Although my inner archivist cringed when you threw away manuscripts and letters,I do recognize this is helpful as well as necessary. Heavens, I sometimes clear my desk, and feel a lot better for it. I'm also recalling the advice of Nina Beachcroft, a popular British writer for children in the 70s, who said she had some mss that hadn't been published, and, she said, quite right, too. That was my first clue that writing was a process that can play out in unforeseen ways, and that it's good not to invest one's sense of self-worth in a manuscript.
I really appreciate you addressing this! I have a book project I've been working on (on and off) for years -- a breezy memoir-adjacent collection of stories about my time in France. But I'm back home now, living a completely different life. Which makes the material difficult to engage with, either because of unresolved emotions re: the experiences I'm writing about or because I've simply lost some of the memory/detail that would make a scene come alive. So, it's fallen by the wayside over the past couple years. I actually believe I WILL come back to it, or some form of it, in the future. Maybe when I have the luxury of going back to Europe and sitting with memories in context. But going from loudly declaring to everyone "I'm WRITING A BOOK!" to... not... was mentally taxing. For awhile, I felt embarrassed for abandoning it (or leaving it aside.) 🙈
Brilliant! And so helpful. (I have done this. Walked away. More than once. And at the time, it always felt like I was leaving a house I had lived in for 20 years to be reclaimed by nature or something. But when I was cleaning out my storage room, I found boxes of old paper manuscripts, and some of them I couldn't actually remember writing. I knew that I had to be my writing. But still... On the other hand, there are a couple that I still hope to go back to. They were perhaps just out of reach back then. )
talk about tackling a tough subject! I never throw anything out, but I have parked projects that have a lot of potential so I can shart the shiny hot new one. Not sure what to make of that. Best laid plans laid to the side...fear of successs? or not knowing what to do next....Coaching helps. thanks for your support and honest sharing,Alison. All the best!!!
I love your phrase a deep-deep-sense of “rightness” that creates this giddy, inexplicable lightening of your heart. That makes you sit at the computer or pick up a pen to write, even if you’re in the middle of doing something important. Sometimes this feeling smacks me in the chest and I jump over the shoes left in the middle of my living room floor to get to my desk.
But there is also another word that has been a miracle for me to fall in love with writing again. And again.
Curiosity.
The credit goes to Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, Big Magic, where she talks about being more curious than you’re frightened of creating.
Curiosity works not just for winning over the fear of creativity. It also opens your creative mind to endless possibilities. When I’m working on a project for a client or when I’m writing an essay about being a black woman working in white institutions or when I’m writing a short literary fiction, I’m CURIOUS to see where writing would take me. I’m curious to read the sentences I’ve written. I’m curious to find out my thoughts on a memory that happened years ago or what I’m thinking about my relationship with my dad.
Whenever you feel boredom or dread when you think of writing the next article or book or whatever, try curiosity. Be curious to see what you can create and who you will be after your creation. And boredom or dread will start sleeping in the bottom of your bed.
It is true. we learn and grow during this writing adventure. A writer friend who published her first book the same year I published mine, 12 years ago, has just published a book she started 20 years ago. It's almost a different book now as she has rewritten it a few times but she has learned so much in the past 20 years that it is now a very good story. Patience and perserverence is required to be a writter. And sometimes we do just need to walk away! (but not too quickly)
It's all sensible, reassuring, and helpful advice, Alison! Although my inner archivist cringed when you threw away manuscripts and letters,I do recognize this is helpful as well as necessary. Heavens, I sometimes clear my desk, and feel a lot better for it. I'm also recalling the advice of Nina Beachcroft, a popular British writer for children in the 70s, who said she had some mss that hadn't been published, and, she said, quite right, too. That was my first clue that writing was a process that can play out in unforeseen ways, and that it's good not to invest one's sense of self-worth in a manuscript.
I really appreciate you addressing this! I have a book project I've been working on (on and off) for years -- a breezy memoir-adjacent collection of stories about my time in France. But I'm back home now, living a completely different life. Which makes the material difficult to engage with, either because of unresolved emotions re: the experiences I'm writing about or because I've simply lost some of the memory/detail that would make a scene come alive. So, it's fallen by the wayside over the past couple years. I actually believe I WILL come back to it, or some form of it, in the future. Maybe when I have the luxury of going back to Europe and sitting with memories in context. But going from loudly declaring to everyone "I'm WRITING A BOOK!" to... not... was mentally taxing. For awhile, I felt embarrassed for abandoning it (or leaving it aside.) 🙈
Such a difficult decision. Some great tips. Thank you
Brilliant! And so helpful. (I have done this. Walked away. More than once. And at the time, it always felt like I was leaving a house I had lived in for 20 years to be reclaimed by nature or something. But when I was cleaning out my storage room, I found boxes of old paper manuscripts, and some of them I couldn't actually remember writing. I knew that I had to be my writing. But still... On the other hand, there are a couple that I still hope to go back to. They were perhaps just out of reach back then. )
This is where I am at right now… Not sure where to go…. Thank you
talk about tackling a tough subject! I never throw anything out, but I have parked projects that have a lot of potential so I can shart the shiny hot new one. Not sure what to make of that. Best laid plans laid to the side...fear of successs? or not knowing what to do next....Coaching helps. thanks for your support and honest sharing,Alison. All the best!!!
I love your phrase a deep-deep-sense of “rightness” that creates this giddy, inexplicable lightening of your heart. That makes you sit at the computer or pick up a pen to write, even if you’re in the middle of doing something important. Sometimes this feeling smacks me in the chest and I jump over the shoes left in the middle of my living room floor to get to my desk.
But there is also another word that has been a miracle for me to fall in love with writing again. And again.
Curiosity.
The credit goes to Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, Big Magic, where she talks about being more curious than you’re frightened of creating.
Curiosity works not just for winning over the fear of creativity. It also opens your creative mind to endless possibilities. When I’m working on a project for a client or when I’m writing an essay about being a black woman working in white institutions or when I’m writing a short literary fiction, I’m CURIOUS to see where writing would take me. I’m curious to read the sentences I’ve written. I’m curious to find out my thoughts on a memory that happened years ago or what I’m thinking about my relationship with my dad.
Whenever you feel boredom or dread when you think of writing the next article or book or whatever, try curiosity. Be curious to see what you can create and who you will be after your creation. And boredom or dread will start sleeping in the bottom of your bed.
I wrote an article I am proud of and would love your wise and considered interpretations good human 😊
https://tumbleweedwords.substack.com/p/is-the-celebration-of-overweight?s=w
It is true. we learn and grow during this writing adventure. A writer friend who published her first book the same year I published mine, 12 years ago, has just published a book she started 20 years ago. It's almost a different book now as she has rewritten it a few times but she has learned so much in the past 20 years that it is now a very good story. Patience and perserverence is required to be a writter. And sometimes we do just need to walk away! (but not too quickly)