I love to write. I love to read. I love the paragraph that makes me pause and compels me to read it again, letting it wash over me while its tone and rhythm captivate me. The structure of the paragraph reminds me of open-water swimming in the Pacific (my favorite spot is shown above). You dip in your toes to check the water temperature, ease into the liquid, and begin allowing the water move through you. If you can let go, move with grace, and flow with the waves and seaweed moving through your fingers, you’ll experience a beautiful ride to the shoreline on the other side—effortlessly.
This ease of movement through a paragraph got me thinking. What is the best way to learn to be a great writer? I don’t know the answer, but I think I am getting closer to my answer. Maybe my observations will work for you, too? I’ve read tons of books about writing and memoirs of the craft. Over time, one thing has crystallized for me: the more I sedate myself with reading about writing, the further I am away from doing what I love the most. I need to write.
At the very minimum, we must all know the fundamentals: grammar rules, sentence structure, etc. But, even fundamentals can shift and rumble depending on what feeling or tone you’re trying to illicit. And, while I’m sure we all can agree on some magnificent writers, there will always be some writing styles and genres that each of us will enjoy more than others. So, don’t worry too much about your audience. They will find you if you’re being yourself.
Learn the nuts and bolts, get the toolbox stocked, and write. Just start writing—for you. I truly believe that if you want to write, and/or get paid to write, you can. Regardless of the genre, subject, or forum, the world wants to hear what you have to say. I do.
Your writing may incubate for years in a stack of journals, or in the form of email correspondence, or graffiti, or love letters, or writing for a place of business. The key is to keep going. If you have the urge to write, make it happen. Stop reading about it and put pen to page (or phalanges to keys).
In most cases, I’d bet you learn to do things by ‘doing.’ How does a pianist learn to play, by reading 30 versions of how to play the piano? Nope. Granted, pianists need to know music theory: concepts like base clef, treble clef, and key signature, to get started. But many of the greatest pianists honed their craft with practice—phalanges to keys.
Write what feels right. Write for yourself first. Not long ago, I wrote that I’m the best boss I’ve ever had. This may sound goofy, but I love to read my writing, too. I can honestly say that I write first, for me, second, for those that may glean something from what I’m writing. If I make it through someone’s eyeballs to their heart and mind, it’s icing on the cake.
I hope that you’ll write and send me your link (or letters, or graffiti). In my book, if you’re writing, period, you’re writing right.
As a side note, I’ve happened upon a great guy, named Larry, who is a savant when it comes to guidelines for story architecture (i.e., building your toolbox). If you’d like direction regarding the nuts and bolts of what makes a great story, his guidelines seem to make a lot of sense and he has a great, down-to-earth way of communicating his ideas. Check him out!
Also, I want to acknowledge Lisis and her Fairy Blog Mother for their recent article about blog post word count. It made me think deeply about what actually goes into that text block, and how it makes it there in the first place. You girls rock!
I think you bring up a great point. Just by sitting down and putting pen to paper (or what have you), you’re doing it… you’re writing! I’ve heard a lot of bloggers say that their writing has improved with practice. “Learning by doing” is a powerful and successful method. I hope you stick with it, and let us know how it feels along the way. I’m glad to see you here in the blogosphere, sharing your writing with all of us. Thank you for this gift! : )
Lori,
Doing. How important that is! No matter what it is we want to accomplish, all the learning in the world about it will not make us better (sure, we may pick up ideas to try). It’s about actually doing it, and evolving in our craft as we do. I recently went back and read an early post I’d written – and could really see how “doing” has helped me to get better at getting the message I’m writing across.
Oh, and that picture is so filled with life and peace. What a beautiful spot to visit!
Lori, you bring up a great point of when we write for ourselves, then I think this writing really does hold great meaning for us. And because of this, because we connect so deeply with this – our passion for this just shines through to others too. And that’s such a wonderful thing. Keep writing what has meaning to you. It’s beautiful…. And I will too…
Once upon a time, I was following Steve Pavlina on twitter, and he posted a tweet that said “The first million words of content are the hardest.” That really struck a chord with me, because that’s the honest truth. You have to write, write, write, and then write some more. It really is the only way.
Another thing I read recently said that to become an expert in any skill, you need to put in 10,000 hours of practice. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll be damn good at anything that you practice for 10,000 hours! Writing is a skill like any other. It can be developed, and perfected with practice. And just as you’ve pointed out, the only way to practice writing is by writing.
Loved this post!
Nah… forget all that. Just write 500 words every time.
Of course you know how I feel about this, because it’s taken me more than 100 posts to start feeling like I might be a writer or a blogger. When I got started I really didn’t know what I wanted to blog about, so I copied some journal entries and published them.
Then a few real-time, natural thoughts started flowing and, the more I interacted with readers and other bloggers, the more I felt like a was finally headed in a direction.
It’s like, when I got started, I was paddling around in a little stagnant lake. Then one day I discovered a stream that headed off in one direction, and I decided to follow it… slowly, cautiously. The stream turned into a small river and started picking up speed, my thoughts started flowing in one direction, I could hear my voice (faintly) in the sound of the water rushing over the rocks.
It got a little scary, ’cause it was faster than I was comfortable with, but I let myself go with it. Now I’m in a nice pace, I’ve found a rhythm, moving ever forward… not too fast, not too slow, guided by that “voice”.
I really don’t know what’s around the bend. Could be a small drop into another stagnant lake, or it could be Niagara Falls. Not sure what I’ll do with either one; I’m just enjoying the ride for now.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to ramble out a whole post about rivers and blogging… it just is what came to me, and I’ve learned not to question that voice.
Shoot! In all that rambling, I forgot to tell you, I LOVE this Fusion theme you’ve chosen. It’s the little black dress of wordpress templates. Nice!
It looks like I’m the last one to the party (ha). I’m going to have to figure out how to deal with being on the west coast and always being hours behind. I can’t keep up with all you guys; maybe I’m going to have to start going to bed at 6 PM?
Alison:
You’re right on the money–practice makes perfect. And sure, I’ll keep you updated on my journey with writing. Its been a wild ride thus far, but then again, I am preaching to the converted, per se. Maybe I’m just wrote this for me? Er, uh, oh yeah, of course I wrote it for me. I’m just glad you enjoyed it, too! Thanks Ali!! You rock!
Lisis:
Only you could fit such style and grace into a comment! I love what you have to say, comments, blogs posts, tweets, everything.
You and Ali have been awesome mentors and I’ve really enjoyed following Q4B. I like how you used water to describe your feelings about writing. Obviously, I feel the same way. The ocean does that for me. Sometimes a huge wave catches me by surprise and I get a mouthful of salt water. I hope blogging doesn’t give me too many of those.
And, I’m glad you like this theme. I was surprised how long it took me to settle on something. I kept feeling like I was wearing someone else’s clothes. The little black dress comment is great, now I have a little black dress to go with my perfect skirt length (referring to your post yesterday). How fun is that??
Thanks, Lisis, for stopping by!
Hi Lance:
It is great to hear from you that you have noticed changes over time, in the right direction. That’s encouraging for me.
I know what you mean about bringing passion to our writing. Sometimes when I’m writing, and I know I am writing about something I really care about, my heart starts pounding I need to take a break! Thanks for all of your warm comments, consider that I’m just a mirror and what you see is really you. Because, that is true; your writing is wonderful.
Hi Jay!
I love the Steve Pavlina quote. So true!!!
I think a lot of what I was writing about reminded me of learning to play the piano. It was really hard at the beginning because there was so much to learn. But I remember loving the smallest of accomplishments, like learning where to find Middle C, what the spaces between the lines meant, and so forth. Practicing was so much fun Mom never had to hassle me about. I just did it because I loved it.
Hmmm, I’ve heard the 10,000 hrs thing somewhere, too. Maybe I should start clocking myself? ha
I’m glad you liked this post. Thanks for being my icing today.
Hi Lori,
I love the picture that you used. It is so beautiful, I could just look at it for hours.
The one question I get asked more than anything else is about my writing. I have been working on it for nineteen years and I am a firm believer that there is no way a person can learn how to write. You just learn by doing it and listening to your heart. I think when you listen to your heart, you are guided in the right direction.
Also, like Jay mentioned, practice is key. The more you work at it and the more you follow your heart, the more likely the pieces fall into place and a person finds their voice as a writer. It truly does boil down to passion. People can sense when someone has written something from their head or from their heart.
Hi Nadia!
I am very happy to see your comment here. I love having Happy Lotus flowers appear in my life.
What you’re saying makes a lot of sense. And I think you’ve hit upon something: if I can intuit when someone is writing from their heart, it makes a lot of sense to do this, myself, as a rule.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Nadia, You are wonderful.
Hi Lori,
I have a history of trying to ‘read up’ on everything a little too much. I sometimes try to get to a point where I know what to do before I have to do it.
But it usually doesn’t work that way, like you say. With writing I’ve really adopted the new habit of just diving in, and getting some words down, good or bad. It seems to be working so far, and I’ve been able to bring that same controlled recklessness to other areas were I was being timid.
Hey David,
I’m like that too, I’ll typically research something until I’m blue in the face before I feel comfortable trying it. But, yeah, I agree, writing more, and just diving in, has opened me up to some other cool stuff as well.
It has pried me from my cage, per se. (ha)
Well, David, it looks like your new habit of, “just diving in,” is working quite well for you; I’ve really been enjoying your posts over at Raptitude.
Cheers! And thanks for stopping by.
P.S. My spider bites have pretty much healed. I saw another spider this morning and just left her be this time.