If you haven’t read The Help by Kathryn Stockett, let me encourage you to do so. Stockett writes about an editor who gives the main character this advice: “Don’t waste your time on the obvious things. Write about what disturbs you, particularly if it bothers no one else.”
This is good advice.
What disturbs you? Write it down. Please.
How can I motivate you? What can I do? Which magic words could I utter to light a fire under you, to get your disturbance out and never, ever give up?
Do you realize what an incalculably rare opportunity you have? And do you see what the world would never know if it wasn’t for you as a writer, and you alone?
No. You don’t see it.
So my job is to paint that picture. Think of George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life. Think of his realization at the end of the movie when he sees that the investments he made changed the lives of countless people and saved his town from corruption and evil. Now think of how far a book goes and realize that the idea you’ll spread will have the same impact, only more. What you won’t see is what George saw–the world without him, without his hope and dedication.
The world relies on you believing in that alternate without-you world you can’t see…and preventing it.
So, ready or not, I hope you’ll write. All you need to begin, in the words of Neruda, is to pen the “first faint line.”
Photo by Mark Winterbourne, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Mick Silva, teacher of our upcoming 2013 Memoir Workshop.
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Write the first faint lines of your memoir. Or find editorial guidance for a life story you’ve already begun to set down.
Check out our 2013 Memoir Workshop with Mick Silva. Mick has served as an editor at Waterbrook/Random House.
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I wonder what disturbance looks like for a writer. Is it always negative?
Valuable insight. Thanks. Perhaps we shy away from what disturbs us, thinking others will not agree. Sometimes, though, we are roused to write in protest.
This really resonates with me, Douglas. Am thinking of disabling the delete key on my laptop…
Disabling your delete key? That would be an act of extraordinary courage, worse even than disabling your spell-check.
Emerson did encourage us to speak our minds fearlessly. That was before Google could let everyone find out how silly we once were.
Yup. They’ve got GOOGLE and they know how to use it!
I’ve been playing (wrestling) with the disturbed question withnothing in black and white remaining to show for it. Yesterday I tried writing in the third person and managed to save, not delete, the file.
Good idea, attributing it to the third person pronoun. You may step up to an “I” or a “We” later. Then again, “they say….”
Laura, I’ve wondered the same. Certainly, it’s a matter of perspective. And if you’re like me, writing is usually about broadening mine.
Douglas, such a great point. Concern for what others will think is the number one reason I see writers not writing–and absolutely, a “win” is translating that anxiety into fuel for creativity.