Who else makes things for the sake of focus? In my world, the process of writing gives me a coherent sense of thought, a long and lovely sound of fingers clicking on a keyboard, and a chance to share what I’ve learned and observed with you. I also hope something in here is helpful, so this process is tinged (or tingled) with optimism too.
Quick Detour by a Media Boss:
That’s been a secondary aim of my work: helpfulness. I came out of the restaurant business and people-pleasing after all. Helpfulness feels great. And in the words of Mr. Rogers, when times seem tough, “look for the helpers.”
He also implored the media (in his kindly, brilliant, and gentle way) for media to consciously SHOW the helpers, as social and healing strategy, over and over. He’s right. This one thing done consistently would surely turn around the world.
This showing of helpers is a salve to soothe an achy heart.
Making stuff, like I do, is inherently a selfish act. I write because I need to. Each day I manage to put something together with some verve, value, or quirky turns of phrase, I feel like I can carry on to take care of all the other stuff afterwards. I write so that I can get in and out of the grocery store looking “normal” so I don’t wander around in endless conversations with neighbors and acquaintances, perhaps embarrassing myself with a tad too much TMI.
Hey, things like that happen. Achy hearts, and wandering around in grocery stores, and… it’s okay.
Writing stands between me and forgetting who I am.
And writing can push my brain into a semblance of coherence, helping me learn how to think and communicate like someone who “kind of” fits. As in “fits in” not “has fits” 😉
Many writers and artists say the same thing, that there’s a “must” to why they do what they do, and I look to them to understand this vocational predicament: write, write honestly, fear, write anyway, edit badly, try to help, say “what the f,” then publish away.
I’d love to wrap this up with a clear point or call to action, but life isn’t really like that, for me.
So instead, here are some favorite quotes by people much smarter than me:
One writes out of one thing only—one’s own experience. Everything depends on how relentlessly one forces from this experience the last drop, sweet or bitter, it can possibly give. This is the only real concern of the artist, to recreate out of the disorder of life that order which is art. ― James Baldwin
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. ― Maya Angelou
You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children. ― Madeleine L’Engle
We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect. ― Anais Nin
If you want to really hurt you parents, and you don’t have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I’m not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can.” ― Kurt Vonnegut
The writing is — I’m free from pain. It’s where nobody tells me what to do; it’s where my imagination is fecund and I am really at my best. Nothing matters more in the world or in my body or anywhere when I’m writing. ―Toni Morrison
Writing is essentially donkey work, manual labor of the mind. What makes it bearable are those moments (which sometimes can last for weeks, months) when the book takes over, takes on a life of its own, goes off in unexpected directions. —John Gregory Dunne
Somebody’s boring me—I think it’s me. —Dylan Thomas
I’m thinking of Leonard Nimoy’s spiritual journey from writing I Am Not Spock (1975) to writing I Am Spock (1995). This is a journey we all must make. —Tim Kreider
A word after a word after a word is power. ― Margaret Atwood
Let me live, love, and say it well in good sentences. ― Sylvia Plath
You are speaking to an old rat. I find much of so‐called avant‐garde writing utterly trivial. If there is no moral question, there is no reason to write. I’m an old‐fashioned writer and, despite the odds, I want to change the world. What I hope to convey? Well, joy, love, the passion to feel how our choices affect the world . . . that’s all. ― James Baldwin
I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done. ―Lucille Ball
Have a great day.
