One thing that I think makes writing difficult, particularly if you want to publish it (even if it's just on your blog!), is that it is so personal. You are revealing your interests, your viewpoints, your imagination to the world. What if they don't like it? What if they think you are weird or crazy?
Someone once said that writing is easy--you just open a vein. And you do, figuratively. You put yourself, or parts of yourself, in writing on the page or screen for everyone to pore over and make comments and criticize (and hopefully, occasionally, praise). It's tough to do. It requires a bit of courage.
You start out with simple things, things that you don't mind people knowing about you and your thoughts and feelings. However, for your writing to really be powerful, you need to feel a sort of passion about your thoughts or opinions or the imaginary world you have created for your story or novel or poem. And if it's not imaginary--if it's at least partly real, based on some experience you've had and what you thought and felt about that experience--well, that is really putting your soul out there for people to examine.
I've noticed that the more strongly I feel about something, the better my writing is--at least in conveying emotion. But it is difficult to let yourself go enough to write about the things that are the most important to you, the most precious.
I think you have to just start somewhere and build up to the more passionate, revealing writing. Maybe it is just my own personality that makes me reluctant to let others in, but I don't think I'm totally alone in this. So why do I continue writing? Because it has always been something I have to do, want to do, need to do. I think everyone has some passion in life, something they love doing even if it is difficult and troublesome. For me, it's writing.
I don't think that a writer has to put everything on paper. Some things are just too personal to share directly. And some things are best left unsaid. I am talking more about the feeling behind your writing and the things that what you choose to write reveal about you. For example, on one of my other blogs, Scholar, I write a lot about politics and I write about them from my very conservative point of view. That isn't always popular and it is often misunderstood by those who hold more liberal views. So that writing can be difficult for me, yet there are things that I feel strongly should be said--viewpoints that must be shared. I hope to give people something to think about and to get them to thinking hard about the rights and wrongs in the world, and what is important, and what is true.
Writing is difficult, but it is a wonderful thing to give others your thoughts so that they might ponder their own and perhaps incorporate some small part of what you have written into their own mind. Perhaps you will help them to be more understanding of other viewpoints, even if they cannot agree. Perhaps you will touch their hearts. Or inspire them to read or write or do some other thing. Maybe encouragement and hope is what you have to offer others. Or a laugh or a bit of entertainment. It could be any number of things that you have to offer the world.
And so I write.
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2 comments:
I recall having a guest speaker for my Oral Interp class who was a professor at my University who taught poetry. He seemed to have the philosphy that you have to really get past the surface level to where it is uncomfortable for it to be good if I recall the gist of what he said. I agree that some things are too personal. I do enjoy reveal aspects of myself.
I agree with your words about needing a passion.
I also write better when it is a topic I am passionate about.
Barb, thanks for stopping by! I think we do have to get past the surface level for writing to be good. I'm not sure how uncomfortable it needs to be, though! But it usually is somewhat uncomfortable in one sense or another to dig a little deeper and bring out some point or idea that is worth writing about.
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