The Write Stuff

The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say. ~Anaïs Nin

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Do you have the right stuff to write?

Well I put out three blog posts in one day yesterday, at over 500 words that's more than 1500 words. Wow! I sat amazed at all the writing I had in me.

I know I’ve been told that I talk a lot but I’ve been so tired and bogged down that writing never really grabbed hold of me like it did yesterday. I was in a writing frenzy like you wouldn’t believe. I could have posted this one too, but I did want to save something for today.

I think to write, you need the right stuff. A quiet environment, time, and support. If you have someone supporting you through your writing journey, it makes the trek that much more easier. This is why I surround myself with professional writers because they understand the journey better than anyone, and they’ll be the first to give you a leg to stand on.

Then their is the support of your friends. I have many ‘virtual’ friends who live in this windowed world and on many occasions they have lifted me to new heights. Since I’ve released myself of the ones who were wearing me down, trying to drag me through the mud to a hole where my headstone would be placed, I have moved on, happily.

I now sit here and look forward to spilling words onto the page that actually have some meaning to them, other than, ‘Have a great day’ and such as with the the social scene. No, the social scene is not for me. I’m a teacher at heart and I love to share knowledge in simple form. I don’t like all the scripted sounds of academia, I prefer straight up try-this-on-for-size skills.

I watch as people bumble around, looking like they have something important to say, or trying to look important or maybe even trying to make themselves feel important. All the while something is missing inside. Something burning them, making them feel that the only way to feel complete is live in a virtual world. That is sad. And those people have my prayers.

They should be writing something that makes them feel complete and whole. I try, when I sit down to write, to give you something that you will walk away with for the rest of your day. Whether you’ll be saying, “That spoke directly to me,” or perhaps, “I know a person like that,” or even you might think, “Wow she hit the nail on the head.”

Writing is my healer. Writing is my God given talent that I am putting to use. I’m not stuffing it on a social wall somewhere, I’m actually putting together sentences, that are coherent, legible and informational. I see that I have the Right Stuff. Now I need to see YOU have the Right Stuff. Have you written more than a paragraph today?

Write Right, and Write ON!

Just words or WORDS?

Job 4:4 Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.
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Words words words. Sure you’re building a story, you being the architect of the masterpiece, but are you building your story on just words or WORDS?

There is a difference you know. I can write a poem and by the time I’ve revised it, many of the unimportant words have bit the dust and my poem comes out stronger in my minds eye. This is what we need to do to our stories.

Sure we hate cutting out words, but we need to make sure the reader is getting every juicy morsel of our work and not just words spilled on the paper like yesterdays coffee stain. Our words are our tools in making the reader flip through paragraph after paragraph. They need to see each blooming chapter as being filled with new possibilities for your character(s).

If you’re writing a novel, those first words in a paragraph are so important to keeping your reader reading. We usually call it the hook. The first paragraph, you say, not the first page? Nope, it is that very first paragraph that has to pack so much punch that the reader will be willing to move onto the second, third and fourth paragraph.

I have read books where I’ve gotten through the entire first power-packed chapter only to find that the second chapter had less fizzle than sizzle and I wound up never reading the entire story. Is this what you want for your reader? I didn’t think so. You didn’t sit at the keyboard hours on end typing fifty thousand words only to find you’ve written nothing with substance, just a bunch of words slung onto the page, thrown together like a heap of wind driven leaves.

In revision, you need to cut out those unnecessary words, fill the sentence with flavor, scan each chapter as if you were panning for gold, and make each and every paragraph leap out at you. Make your story what you think every reader wants in their arsenal of literature.

Do you have a heap pile? That’s the pile of books that have gone un-read, sit on your shelf looking out at you like the long lost teddy-bear of years gone by, wishing you would pick it up and hold it endearingly.

I don’t have a heap pile. ha ha I only buy or read books that I know are going to get me to the end and fulfill the commitment that the writer began in the first place and that is to make my reading journey a pleasant experience.

Don’t waste you or the readers time on ‘just words’, make every one count so in the end, we the writer and reader are fulfilled in the journey!

Job 8: 10 Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart?