Be a UNIQUE Writer

Moody Gardens- Houston Texas

In writing, there are things that will separate your own writing from the millions of others out there in this business of writing and that is your uniqueness. If we jump into a pool of swimming sharks and swim and feed like them, we are only going to become shark bait.

Now if you grab hold of the idea in your head, swim differently, create your personality, find your voice, and relay it to the world, all the other fish will swim over and want to read of the Eighth Wonder of the World and that is YOU and your writing.

What is going to make you stand out from all of the others? Your personality and the ability to put yourself into words. If you’re popular among your friends in the writing community, more than likely it is an online course or workshop that you’ve become familiar with and have conveyed to them a likable personality.

Not everyone with a thriving personality trait is a writer, but more times than not, they are good writers who stand out in a crowd of so-so writers. Why? Because they have made a presentation of themselves via words, and people are drawn like bees to honey, to a positive personality.

Negative begets negative and positive begets positive. I have seen some negatively influential folk in my day who wear a mask of positive but underneath lurks the venom of a snake. I wonder why they are not published authors by now? Hmm… negative is drawn to negative.

Being unique means more than looking good to other people. A mask can always be seen through, and pity is not a form working towards drawing in a positive. Me, I try to steer clear and treat the negative folks as if they have the plague, so as not to bring me down. In doing such, I’ve lost quite a few ‘so-called’ friends, but in turn, as I turned my world into a positive influx generated by the human psyche, I drew in some positive influences into my life, and wouldn’t change things for the world.

As a writer, you need to define what draws you to other writers. I prefer Tolkien and Koontz as well as Stephen King along with Shirley Jackson. What draws me to those writers is their style. Their writing style speaks volumes as to their personality.

A lot of times when you pick up a book, read a chapter and put it down, a writers personality has leaked through and you felt that the rest of the book was just a washout. This is not the case all of the time, but most of the time.

A unique personality does not mean you’re going to win a popularity contest when one comes around, but a unique voice among the crowd will be a standout and just might be the key for you to go from being a writer, to becoming a published author.

1)     Be yourself – the most important aspect of writing

2)     Be your own person – Don’t try to mimic others.

3)     Frown upon the negative – Do away with the negative people, and you’ll visually capture change.

4)     Accentuate the positive – Befriending the positive nature, will bring about a positive outcome.

5)     BE UNIQUE among the mundane – There are so many out there trying to be like someone else. Be unique among the hum drum, savor the taste of being YOU!

Book Bites:

The Writer's Rules: The Power Of Positive Prose--howTo Create It And Get It Published – Helen G. Brown

Poetry Sunday~ Negative Capability

Gen. 45: 7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
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Negative Capability
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Into a raging sea I ride,
all my will I freely hide
take me now upon the wave.
toss me out for all I gave.

Life is crying out in pain
my mind is rolling with the rain
I hear the voices calling within
A dormant battle I never win.

Hold my hand while I cry
don’t let me be the one to die.
Free me from this angry soul
Set me high where I can stroll.

There He is, not far away
calling me into a new day.
My hand in His, our hearts are one
the battle is free, I feel I’ve won.

Lift me higher into the place
where I can see His adoring face.
I will accept the Master’s plan
trust in Him and not in man.

***

author’s note:

On December 21, 1817, the poet John Keats  wrote a letter to his brother in which he expressed and named a quality of human existence that is tricky to articulate. Keat’s formulation has been adopted by philosophers, poets, and others ever since.

Roughly, the idea is our ability to simultaneously acknowledge the unpredictable nature of events and conduct ourselves with confidence and happiness. He called this familiar yet complex concept negative capability

In a rut...

Matt. 17: 20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
***

Ever hit one of those bumps in the road where your writing takes a back seat to your reality? I’ve hit one of those. I want to write but the rut is keeping me from doing so.

With dental visits for my beau, an impending eye doctor’s visit in Omaha, the tension that the Lion’s Club is putting us through, Adam being bullied at school, all of these instances in my reality is keeping me from writing anything with substance.

I was going to say writing is like a river, it just flows on and reaches no end. That isn’t necessarily true. It flows but then sometimes it finds itself washed up on the beach sinking into the sand absorbed or evaporated. What’s up with that?

Maybe writing is like a pool. You know, a pool that sits there and awaits a refill upon evaporation? You need to keep refilling to get any pleasure out of the fullness of the pool, right?

Then there is the analogy, writing is like a tree, it grows and blossoms each year with new life and fervor, only hindered by say, a wildfire?

These are not good metaphors. Maybe it’s just a peek of negative things that have been going on that are trying to weedle its way into my writing. I’m always a positive thinker so I know this is just what it is, a rut. The jagged little ugliness that wants to hinder my life when all I really need to do is pull out a shovel and bury the pebble in the road. And a little pebble is all that it is.

Did you ever notice that these little pebbles can really hurt when tread upon? It’s not like a boulder, hindering my path. This is a daggum pebble that I will toss in that river and watch it make ripples for a ways out. Flee you pebble! Get out of my life and give me back my sanity!

The Lion’s Club, who said they’d pay for my beau’s operation to see again, has now backed out. The Lion Lady is going to approach a different chapter and ask them to help. Why is it so hard for compassion to overflow so one man can see again? Pebbles are not only in MY path, they seem to be making their way across the paths of many, hindering them in the way that they want or need to go.

When God said that we have the power within us to move a mountain, I have to say, I feel like a living breathing testimony to that fact. Every mountain that stands in my way, I tell it to MOVE and other opportunities open up before me. Not just me, this isn’t a me factor, this is for EVERYONE!

So dip into the pool of words and pull out your sword and breastplate and armor yourself for a battle like no other. And when you need to get out of a rut, you stand firm in your belief that this pebble,  this mountain will move out of your way, and it will be so. All in God’s time! Remember that. This isn’t about our plans, this is about God’s plan and HIS time!

Even in my rut I produced five hundred and some words! Hmm... the mountain has moved. *deep sigh*