PART ELEVEN: storytelling and writing are different
write the experience, think about the reader and publishing later
Writing the scene. Making a list of content ideas. Cue cards, lined paper, a new notebook, Scrivener, white board. Put some pieces together into a chapter. Ask my editor for ideas. Sleep on it. Don’t sleep on it. Maybe I should…Oh, no I shouldn’t.
Here’s what I got jammed on this week. I got thinking too far ahead about what the reader would think, and if that wasn’t stymying (it’s a word!) enough, then I wondered too long if pursuing traditional publishing again is write for my nascent memoir. Talk about getting in my own way…read on…I’m admitting it all here in Part Eleven of the WRITE ON Series.
There is a statistic our there that 80% of people have a book on their bucket list. I can’t credit anyone properly with this (and if you can, please email me links)…
I firmly believe that everyone has a story in them, yes. But NO, I don’t believe everyone should publish a book. There is storytelling. There is the craft of writing. They are both fabulous but they are not the same.
When the writing part gets in my way—the shape of the arc, narrative devices (plot, character, description) start bullying me, or I start to wonder about the book’s reaction when it’s out in the world…I may as well walk away because I’m done for the day.
You too? You get joy out of writing bits of your story, putting it on here, making posts online, vlogging, whatever you do. Then your brain starts to think about writing and publishing and SLAM! the creativity is cramped, the flow is cut off and your are wracked with fear and worry you didn’t have 20 minutes before when you were writing about grabbing a bag of chips and a Coke as your only supplies when you ran away from home when you were 7 years old.
Hey, I knew that traditional publishing would be my preferred path for my memoir and nonfiction work. I expected that I would author-publish my writer’s craft and coaching material. But that’s me. And I didn’t decide that for YEARS…but this week, regardless of how well I understand that…I gave it too much think time and why—I thought about the reader too soon.
Back to basics. Stay present. Focus on the page in front of you. Your experience of writing is the only thing you need to think about right now.
First, I write.
Second, I consider the reader’s experience.
Third, I figure out the publishing path for me and my book at that time.
Personal narrative or #lifewriting as I call it is available to all of us, whether you do that to record your thoughts, make a list, or sort out how you feel about something—tell your story.
A book is a very different thing than writing, which is far more than words on a page.
take the pressure off by not looking at the horizon. eyes on the page, writer.
