At a recent day of
writing together Writing from the Heart, many
of you expressed a desire to write a book or tell a story or felt a longing to
express something that niggles at your heart and mind. Not everyone wants to produce a book or an
article or a product but many of you asked, “How do I begin? What do I do
first?” Someone even asked, “How do I get published?” Since I am not a
published author, my advice in
that area would be limited. But one thing I know from my work writing and from
reading and talking with other published authors is that publishing is the last
step in a very long process.
In order to be
published you have to produce a work of art—at least a work that has the qualities
of that genre—a unique expression of you.
What I mean is, you need to focus first on your writing. Think of writing as gathering wheat, not how
it is done these days where huge farm equipment clears a field in a matter of
hours. But instead think about how women
and men would gather wheat in the old days gathering stalks of wheat by hand,
tying the stalks together in bundles with rope or string and then transporting
the bundles to the threshing floor by horse and wagon. Then the threshing
begins, beating the long stalks of grain against the hard ground or stone floor
to separate the seeds from the stalk and then grinding the seeds into a fine
powder that when mixed with yeast, water, oil and salt and allowed to rise is
baked into a delicious loaf of bread—and there’s you book!
This process takes
days of steady labor. And it takes lots and lots of stalks of wheat! Lots of
gathering, lots of writing, lots of separating the wheat from the chaff and
even then you need inspiration (yeast) to make the dough rise, to form the loaf.
Writing is a tool that opens the door to your own creativity and thought and
good writing requires refining (threshing and milling). Thinking about how to get published before you’ve even begun to write is like trying to make bread without
flour. Got to do the hard work first!
I’ve been writing
a memoir for years now. Maybe I am slow,
not as genius as another, but the process of writing and re-writing has honed
my skill, has clarified for me my voice—who it is I am that is telling the
story. This has been an invaluable
process. And will I ever get published? God knows! But will I write, will I keep
writing and refining and understanding myself better with each revision. You
bet!
Just start
writing and keep writing and maybe one day you will have a great big wonderful
loaf of bread to share. Pass the butter
and jam!!
