Just because I haven't written anything on this blogsite for what seems like years, it doesn't mean I haven't been writing at all. I have been engaged in three novel ideas at various stages of developments. Two are actually works in progress in the form of Microsoft Word documents, and the third one is unfolding at a surprising rate....in my head.
I feel as if I have been a Student Writer forever, and the sense of urgency to get published as an "author" wants to overwhelm me especially upon reaching a significant milestone last month with my birthday. It wants to, but I won't let it. And I'll tell you why.
I'm a great believer of the saying that "Nothing happens by accident." One afternoon, I came to be in a quaint little bookstore called Read Between the Lynes. I have been meaning to explore the small 2oo-something-year-old square in that old town of Woodstock which I had been passing by on my way to work for several months. This bookstorewas not the chainstore kind. Just by the sound of its name, it was unique and had character. As I browsed the many shelves like a kid in Legoland, I chanced upon this book, "If You Want To Write" by Brenda Ueland. An unassuming medium-sized paperback that had what looked like a fuzzy cloud for an art cover. I bought it. It may be the best writing book I have ever bought, and as a former member of the Writer's Digest Book Club, I had bought plenty.
Ms. Euland wrote this book in 1938. But she may as well have been sitting with me in her parlor or my living room, divulging advice on writing like a favorite aunt. She understood the timeless psychological challenges of writing. It was uncanny how she started off the first chapter with those naysayers from childhood, thru the academic life and thereafter. It touched a particular chord in me because I was 13 when I had shown a novel I was working on to a relative, and that particular relative simply remarked it was not good and unconvincing without any further offering of advice or encouragement. I did not finish that novel, and the one novel I did finish prior, I put away and it eventually became lost.
She went on to write that some writers get stuck because we obssess over our works until we are frozen into inaction. This is a direct quote from her (Ch 1, pg 7):
"And so no wonder you don't write and put it off month after month, decade after decade. For when you write, if it is to be any good at all, you must feel free, free and not anxious."
Ms. Euland was also a great believer in "creative idleness." Meaning, it is perfectly ok when there is no jolt of sudden inspiration. It is allowed for writeres to mull things over, let it stew in the brain. And no, I am not making excuses for my apparent unproductiveness despite the fact I've known I wanted to be a professional writer since 1998. Ms. Euland's book is not a license to be a Slacker Writer.
On the contrary, as aspiring writers, we should always be engaged in some form of writing. It's always better to be doing some type of scribbling, be it in a journal, note pad, typing on your pc, or i-Touch. Five-minute writings are perfectly fine as long as they were done without pressure and the burden to churn out an award-winning piece. The point is to enjoy the process and forget the would-be critics. Although, there is nothing wrong with the desire to have a million-dollar bestseller among the top ten list of the New York Times, that sole purpose will not help produce the best work we are capable of.
And so, whether or not I would ever give birth to a breakout novel, I would still keep at it. Yes, I want to write, and I love writing that much.
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