Welcome Sami...
Stephen King’s On Writing
"When you write a story, you're telling
yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out the things
that are not the story."
Sometime after Easter in 2009, I
contracted a case of writer’s block. I didn’t know it at the time. Like many
maladies it didn’t immediately announce itself. I continued to write as though
nothing was amiss--until I started to notice something. Nothing I wrote was any
good. Not a single story was worthy of the effort I was putting in. I kept
scrapping them after three to five chapters to start something totally new,
only to have that story suffer the same fate. I simply wasn’t inspired by my
own words. The joy of writing was gone, to be replaced by a horrible, insidious
fear that annihilated my creativity. The fear of not selling, of not being good
enough, of never living up to my own expectations.
When I finally realised (after around 18
months of insisting all I needed was a serious chunk of time in which to work)
that I had a problem, I took a step away from the computer. I read novels,
watched movies, played with my kids and baked cookies. I started to see things
more clearly. I had so much going on in my life. A day job, a family, friends
and Cadbury chocolate. The realisation came to me that if I never had another
book published I’d still have a rich and fulfilling life. Ironically, it was
when I finally realised I didn’t need
writing to complete me that I at last felt able to embrace it again.
It was at this time that I bought a copy
of Stephen King’s On Writing, a book
which restored my faith in my own vision and made me realise all my problems
could be boiled down to one stark fact: I was afraid.
After close to two years of writer's block, to read the words
"The scariest moment is always just before you start. After that, things
can only get better" made me realise the main thing holding me back from
finishing a book was fear. I was afraid it wouldn't be good, that the plot
would tie me in knots and I'd lose patience with it, afraid I was wasting my
time. Fear is no friend to creativity my fellow writers. It is creativity’s arch
enemy.
Another enemy of creativity is guilt. The famous King quote reads:
"If you don't have time to read, you don't have time to write." A
part of a writer's job it to READ. It is RESEARCH. This seems logical enough,
but it's easy when you have such limited writing time to get bogged down in
guilt when you spend some of that time reading someone else's work instead of
crafting your own. Don’t let the guilts get you. If the writing isn’t working,
go read. Refill the well and start again another day, another hour.
Which brings me to another thing this book taught me. King states:
“Life isn't a support system for art. It's the other way around." Writing
is not the most vital thing in your life. It's not. Really. IT'S NOT THAT
IMPORTANT. Your family, your REAL life is what's important. Writing can totally
consume you and sometimes, when you're on a roll, that's a good thing. The rest
of the time go be with your family, go for a swim or to a movie. Keep it in
perspective and stop beating yourself up for not being Tolstoy.
Toward the end of 2010 I grabbed a notebook and pen and began
writing a story. I had no idea what it was or where it was going but the deal I
made with myself was to finish it no matter what, even if it really did suck.
In order to do that I put the very idea of publishing it out of my mind. By
using ye olde fashioned pen and paper I felt like I was transported back to
those days when I’d hide my notebooks inside school texts and write with
absolutely no plan, simply because I wanted to do that more than anything else.
The absence of that intimidating concept of publication took all the fear out
of the process.
It took a year of writing and re-writing and critiquing and
submitting (ok so I decided to try and publish it after all J), receiving at first a ‘no’ from my editor, and
more rewrites until finally the book was accepted for publication with Samhain
Publishing. Erica’s Choice will be released in August 2012, and I couldn’t be
more proud of the final result. It’s the book I wrote when my writer’s self was
learning to walk again, and if it’s not a bestseller or never receives a
favourable review, it will still be one of my hardest-won, proudest
achievements. Thanks to Stephen King’s book, I won’t forget that my own sense
of achievement is what really matters.
WOW - that's a heart-warming story Sami. HUGE congrats on ERICA'S CHOICE - I can't wait to read it. And thanks for the very important reminder about what really matters in life!!
If you (like me) found Sami's words inspiring, do check out her website here or find her on Facebook and Twitter.
Covers of Sami's gorgeous backlist are below. You can read about all these books and purchase them here :)
7 comments:
A fabulous post, Sami Lee! (Thanks, Rach, for another valuable lesson.)
It is so very easy to be consumed by our writing and cut ourselves off from the rest of our 'ordinary' lives. Yet without all those other interactions and stimulations our creativity may well languish leaving us wondering why we thought we could write in the first place.
My mantra is - Be kind to yourself. Your words and characters will still be there tomorrow :-)
Fantastic post Rach and Sami! So good to know we're not alone. Like you, I've found On Writing to be one of the best craft books I've ever read and from time to time I go back and reread it...lots of dog eared corner pages and yellow highlights throughout. And I agree with Helene, be kind to yourself!
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for visiting Helene an Lisa :)
Insightful post, and some very sage advice. It is so easy to let writing take over your life. Thanks for helping me keep it in perspective!
Great post Sami.
I read King's book when I decided to write - it's brilliant. His advice is so good and I think I need to re-read it.
Happy Australia Day!!
Really wonderful post, Sami. Thank you so much for sharing your journey. There was much there I could relate to. Fear is such a crippling condition for a writer and, as you rightly point out, it's a pointless feeling. There are more important things in the world. How are we supposed to nurture our stories, our characters, if we can't nurture ourselves?
And on that note, I'm ceasing writing for the day and trotting off to play with my husband!
Thanks, ladies. Great stuff.
What a wonderfully inspiring post and full of good advice. Sami, I'm so glad you rediscovered your love of writing and its proper place in your life.
Post a Comment