I read advice
once, a long time ago, that suggested if you want to be a writer, you should
stop telling people, "I want to be a writer," and start declaring to
people, "I'm a writer," as a statement of verifiable truth. I am
a writer. Even if, in fact, you hadn't actually written anything yet
(or, perhaps more specifically, not written anything you could say was
published somewhere) (or not anything worth reading). I think the idea behind
the advice was this concept of thinking
your way into being what you wanted
to be. If you identify yourself to be (fill-in-the-blank) , then you will
start acting like you are _______, and eventually you will then be _________.
This was
terrible advice, by the way. Frankly, I don't believe one can think their way into acting. To wit: For years, I could
actually picture myself as one of those people who ate healthy foods and
exercised regularly and looked slim and trim and svelte and fit. I mean, I
could actually envision myself skinny like that, and what my life would look like
if that's what I did and if that was how I acted. Amazingly, however, that thinking
didn't translate into action. I don't know. Maybe that kind of mind game works
for others, but it definitely did not work for me. Your mileage may vary, as
they say.
But I
digress.
Another
problem with the "Call yourself a writer and make it so" advice is
that it was definitely offered up before the age of the internet. These days, everyone considers themselves to be a
writer and can claim that their work is published... on their blog site,
anyway.
I don't want
to examine too closely the reason why this
person, me -- the gal who started writing stories when she was old enough to
bang out words on a typewriter (and, oh, my... you should see those stories I
wrote when I was seven and eight and nine years old; they are hiLARious) -- didn't,
in fact, become a writer. Or even a very good (let alone consistent) blogger. But,
for whatever reason, I gave up storytelling for news writing in college, and
then gave up news writing for press release writing when I couldn't find a job
in journalism, and then gave up press release writing for lesson plan writing
when I started to homeschool, and, well... here I am.
And, yeah, I
know. Plenty of folks hold day jobs and/or even homeschool a quiverfull of kids
and still find time to blog and write
and create amazing recipes and post elaborate pictures of the individual
ingredients along with the finished dish and then end up with a book deal. But
we can't all be the Pioneer Woman.
Heaping
further coals of discouragement on my head was this recent article: Why You Shoudn't Be a Writer. It was a pretty harsh reality check, but I realized the author probably had
some pretty good points. Am I really as good as I think I am? No, definitely
not. Am I compelled to write; do I
feel as though I will burst if I
can't write every day? Uh... that's a negative, Ghost Rider. (Or should that be
Ghost Writer? Bwahahaha! Get it?)
(*sigh.) (This is why I shouldn't write.)
In any case,
this whole post was spawned by the fact that I have an idea for another post churning in my brain, but
my attempts to "put it on (virtual) paper" have proved futile thus
far, and it makes me question whether I really have that.... je ne sais quoi it takes to be a writer.
In fact, this post is actually the perfect example of the problem I have with
the other post, and it's not writer's block; just the opposite: I know what I want to say, but it's taking
too long to get to the point, and, in fact, I have more than one point I want
to make, and they are related... and yet they aren't, and trying to bring the
two stories I'm sharing back together so the reader can see the relationship
between them and how (in my mind) it all ties together... and, more
importantly, the significance of it
all... well, it's challenging.
And then, I
wrestle with yet another aspect: Who
cares? My mom and my sister and my husband and maybe a couple close friends
(if they have time) read this blog, and that's about it, so why am I worrying
about it so much?
Because I
want them to think what I want to think of myself:
Boy, that girl
can write.
