To My Inner Critic, “Shut Up!”

I spent the weekend at a writer’s conference and some time with an old friend.  How come when you hear advice from the lips of someone else, usually something you already know, it becomes a “wow” moment.  My friend, I’ll call her the Wise Scribe, told me “You are already a writer. You’ve written a ton of stuff.  You need to stop trying to become one and start making some cash from writing.”  Ah, the ultimate challenge for a writer, acknowledging you worth so you can market yourself to the world.  This Wise Scribe also said, “You have done a lot of giving back.  It’s time to focus on you.”

This is exactly what I’ve been thinking in the wee hours of the night.  After over 20 years of working full-time and 16 years as a single parent, I’m ready to focus on me and my passion. Writing.  That thought has been pinging around in my brain but to have someone say it, to give you permission, enlightenment.  I feel transformed.  It’s okay to think about me!  

When I started to push back with the inevitable “but,” the Wise Scribe said, “Here’s the best piece of advice.”  She held up one finger.  “One thing at a time. You only have to do one thing.  Find the one thing and do it.”  One thing?  I can do that?  I don’t have to send 25 queries, today I can send just one. Little baby steps.

Wise Scribe also had this revelation, “When your inner critic is telling you you can’t, tell her to Shut up!”  It’s time to start changing my focus.  I am a writer.  I am not just a harried mom or a stressed out office worker.  I am a writer.  That is my passion.  I’m allowed to be selfish and start spending my energy pursuing my passion.  Thank you oh, Wise Scribe!  I love you!

Leslie

A Book About Writing is Like A New Eye Shadow

For a woman, the cosmetics aisle at the drugstore is like a long row of possibilities.  There are all these products that promise to make us beautiful, radiant, glowing, sultry, sexy, tan, younger…. Don’t even get me started on stores like Sephora and Ulta where the entire store is dedicated to beauty items.

I read somewhere that the reason these stores call to us, suck us in, is because they offer hope.  We can change our hair color, skin color, make-up, smell, plus over our face anti-aging remedies. We can go from dull to pulsating in moments!  Each item we try offers the potential for change.

I feel this way about the aisle of books on writing at the bookstore.  Rows and rows of possibilities. They promise to improve our dialogue, strengthen our plot, deepen our story’s emotions, make the setting leap off the page, guarantee us an agent or publisher. Maybe if I read the right one, my writing will magically improve. All I need is one new piece of advice and I’ll be the next Janet Evanovich.  Get real.

Don’t get me wrong.  I like writing books.  I’ve had an addiction to them for some time, but I’m currently in remission.  I rarely read these books all the way through.  A chapter here, a chapter there—like a bright blue eye shadow or a sparkly silver eye liner—a little goes a long way.  But I’m always looking for that spark of inspiration that feeds me to write another day. I tell my students to try different books to find the words that speak to them and are helpful in their current place in writing. 

Writing books can be a way to avoid writing.  If I just read one more then I’ll have what it takes to get my novel finished.  But like the new improved advanced wrinkle cream that appears monthly promising to make us look ten years younger in two weeks, a book about writing doesn’t make you a better writer.

I can’t imagine not having read and re-read Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird.  I constantly re-read Donald Maass’ Writing the Breakout Novel and The Fire in Fiction.  These are my bibles of writing wise words to motivate me.  But they can’t make me write--only I can make me write.  

Writing makes you a better writer--practice, practice, practice.