I think I have a love-hate relationship with writing. Don't get me wrong, I mostly love it. I'd better; it's been my business for more than 30 years. I've paid the rent as a writer. I bought a house as a writer. I put food on the table as a writer. I identify as a writer and with writers.
But writing's a pretty mystical process. While most people can put together a simple sentence, ask them to "write something" and their face goes ashen. They get that deer-in-the-headlights look and start listing all the reasons for why they can't write.
My Teachers Never Taught Me to Write
My personal belief is that the reason we panic about writing stems from bad experiences in our formative years. I'm talking about those obligatory "What I Did on My Summer Vacation" stories and their weekly and equally nightmarish companions, "What I Did on My Weekend." I can still feel the bright yellow Ticonderoga #2 pencil slipping in my sweaty palm as I desperately tried to come up with something worthwhile to write.
Now don't get me wrong, I always had summers and weekends packed with adventures. It was trying to make something worthy of the time and paper it would take to write that drove my personal panic. For some reason, my teachers thought the exercise of creative writing would build my ability to communicate. But what did I know at eight about story arc, character development, beginnings, middles and ends? Nothing. I did know that the stuff I put down on paper wasn't worth reading. I read a lot, and I knew the kinds of stories that captivated my imagination and thrilled me with each turned page. And this stuff I was writing wasn't it.
My stories of weekend escapades exploring the small islands in Long Island Sound, playing Rescue 8 (at the least, you have to be a child of the 50s to remember that old TV show), building forts in the woods near our house and all the other games and adventures that occupied our days were great fun. But I wasn't equipped to put them down on paper.
Where was the emotional build up? The turning points? The connection for the reader?
Passing Through the Panic Stage
Some of us are lucky enough to pass through this period our lives and still have an interest in writing. Fortunately enough of do so that a site like She Writes can have close to 20,000 members. But if you're like me, you still have those moments when the panic takes over. What am I going to write? Will it be good enough? Will others enjoy reading what I have to say? Oh it's a very real condition. So much so we even have a name for it--writer's block.
One of my favorite scenes from The Mary Tyler Moore Showwas when Bess Lindstrom (the daughter of Cloris Leachman's character Phyllis) asked the TV newsroom writer Murray Slaughter if he liked writing. Murray's response so thoroughly expressed what I'd been thinking (I'm paraphrasing as I remember it): "That's a difficult one. I love reading my writing. I love hearing it read on TV. I love receiving praise for my writing. But I hate the writing."
I don't really hate the writing. I don't even panic any more...much. But there is always that moment. When the screen is blank except for the blinking cursor pounding out it's message to my brain in what I'm sure is some sort of subliminal Morse code, reminding me I don't know what I'm going to write about. Or mocking me that I don't know how I'm going to tell the story. But it passes, and I can write. I can even finish the writing that I started. What a great feeling.
Tips for Getting Through the Panic
Today, on Women's Memoirs, Matilda Butler and I feature a guest blog from Pamela Jane Bell, a successful children's book author and mentor. Pamela is also a memoirist. She often writes on Women's Memoirs about writing and healing. Today, she has five writing tips to help you cope with your personal writing panic. She calls it "One Day of Panic and Three Days of Work." The gist of her message is to accept the process. It's okay to panic as long as you work through that phase and get to writing.
Today, Put Pamela's Techniques to the Test
It's a beautiful sunny day here in Downeast Maine. The temperature is going to be in the mid 60s, and I'm going to get outside and enjoy it. I'm going hiking. I hope it's good weather where you are too, but even if it isn't, do something fun. Get some exercise, if possible. Free your brain for a few hours. Don't think about writing. Just throw yourself into a pleasurable activity...give yourself over to it. Then come back here to She Writes and share your experience with us.
Yes, I'm asking you to write a "What I Did on My Weekend" story. Show that you're now the master of the most obsequious story form ever created. You know how to write. You understand story structure. Now's your chance to slay the "Weekend" story monster once and for all. And I'll do the same. I'll share my experiences hiking today.
PS: As the Guest Editor on She Writes this week, I'll be sharing thoughts about Writing. I'll be pointing you to some different writing styles. I'll be revealing some of the new techniques of applying social science research to character development, emotions and dialogue. And I'll be discussing what it takes to connect with the reader. Now get outside and play.
That's an interesting approach, Jessica. I do pretty much the opposite. We have a technique that we teach called Deconstruction where we have writers do all the thinking and note-taking before they start writing. Personally, I like it, but it does all come down to what works. And what works for one may be wrong for another. But I do agree with you, "If it doesn't 'sound' right, it's usually because it's not true. Twain once wrote that he talked and talked his dialogue until it sounded right.
Thanks, Kendra. Yes, I think it takes some analytical thinking up front, but for me it's more of a let-go process. I write what comes to mind as I write--how I feel, (or the character), etc. And then I sit back and sort of listen to my gut, as to whether the writing is truthful. If it doesn't "sound" right, it's usually because it's not true.
Hi Jessica, I just read your story. Thanks to your teacher and your own insight, you have hit on one of the cardinal rules of writing...truth. And before you can write truthfully, which also helps you write more deeply, you need to be honest with yourself. I don't know about you, but I think that takes a certain amount of analytical thinking up front. I can think I'm being truthful, but until I take the time to dig in, I don't know if I'm feeding myself a lie, a half truth or a convenient truth. Thanks for sharing.
I have a good story about a writing teacher--actually, I have several. But I recently wrote about just one of them at True STORIES. My Expository Writing teacher gave me the best writing advice I've ever received.
Margaret, we have something in common. It was my 10th grade English teacher who inspired me. He helped me so much that I've dedicated two of my books to him. My mother, on the other hand, was quite different from yours. She encouraged me to read fiction, and those stories became my model. I wanted to write like the authors I enjoyed. I couldn't. I lacked the tools and understanding; hence my frustration.
I used my misery with writing Summer Vacation and Weekend stories in grade school as a point of humor. But here's what my business/writing partner Matilda Butler and I see every day: Aspiring memoirists who are driven more by the story they have to share than a deep-seated desire to write. Their stories drive them to learn to write, and they work hard to achieve their objective. Their challenge is to put the story that's in their head on paper in a form that captures their message...be it hope, inspiration, courage. Often the characters, emotions and message get lost in translation. But with a little guidance, a dose of confidence and some techniques to help them draw on their inner writer, if you will, these women can tell a powerful story.
I do have a sense of humor, and a sense of irony. Today I happened to read "So You're Going to a Writers' Conference!", essentially a report of what the writer did on her summer vacation. It's a genre that sells! She was in my workshop at Bread Loaf last year. I'm the womn with the pins on her hat.
Not offended, just sighing over a cliché. The subhead on your article (which you might not have chosen) is "My Teachers Never Taught Me To Write." It's a cliché of the "empower yourself as a storyteller" school of thought -- that a woman gets to adulthood and has something important to say, but she's paralyzed because her teachers (all of them!) never taught her to write, or they squashed her creativity by reading (not exclusively) for structure or grammar or mechanics. We didn't write much in elementary school. My teachers were Sisters of Mercy who did the best they could with limited resources and 60+ students in a class. My mother thought fiction frivolous. But my 10th grade English teacher, also a Mercy nun, took an interest in me and my writing, introduced me to Faulkner and Joyce, and intervened with my mother who thought higher education for me would be a waste (since I was so dreamy and scattered).
I grew up in the 50s -- have never heard of Rescue 8.
Well, Margaret, I'm sorry you're feeling offended. I didn't send out that email, but I do stand by my story. My third-grade teacher assigned a "What I Did on My Weekend" story every Monday morning. But at eight, I just didn't have the tools to express myself. I couldn't capture how I felt inside. That frustrated me for years. I also know from years of talking about writing with people who claim they are not able to write that they really are dealing with impressions that developed during their formative years. I'm sure you do a fine job teaching high school writing, but not every grade school teacher gets the same results...or at least they didn't in my day.
The email touting this piece contained this sentence: "In [this piece] she reflects on how her teacher's [sic] never really taught her to write." Way to go, She Writes -- alienating, or at least annoying, a veteran teacher of writing (30 years with 11th graders) who never assigned "What I Did on My Summer Vacation."