Writing Ingredients: Every Single Drop of Your Vulnerability

“There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter (or computer) and open a vein.” ~Walter Wellesley

Strangely enough, I had a few people ask me about writing within the last couple of weeks. They wanted to know a few things: between how to get started, creating a blog, writing a book and even if there were writers out there who would write for them. I was surprised at the last one because I know for myself, I can’t let other people take the wheel, even if I say, “Make a left hand turn.” I’m always the driver, so I have a hard time relating to that one. The people I spoke with all seem to want to go from zero to sixty in 3.5 seconds. Writing isn’t an instant job with dollar signs to be seen right away, unless you went to college for journalism and landed the ideal job at a well known media source. I didn’t see a dime for three years while writing. The first thing I ever wrote was my book, A Prayer Away From Healing. Then it was advised by the publishing house I that went through to create a blog. I didn’t do it because it was advised, I did it because I had a passion for writing - more so sharing my thoughts, myself, my life with the world for those who wanted to read or, could possibly relate.

“The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say.” ~Anais Nin

Whatever topic you’re going to write about - you are putting yourself out there. Whether it be about politics, religion, gardening or just your everyday life - you will be judged and called out on your outlook on everything - your opinions and sometimes, even your writing style. No matter what, you have to have a thick skin. Put aside the grammatical aspects of it: writing is the hardest thing to do if you’re not the type of person who likes to ‘put it all out there’. There are some people I know who like the gray area of writing: poetry. You have to decipher it, and perhaps put the words together to form your own meaning, while they at times, have a whole different side of the story. It’s one of the many reasons why I love to read poetry. If it’s too wordy and incomprehensible -I’m out. I don’t want to work extra hard to find out what the author is ‘really’ talking about. Perfect quote for that is, “A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. the other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket.” ~Charles Peguy

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” ~Sylvia Plath (One of my favorite poet and story writers.)

Self-doubt is a killer to writing...no doubt. But sometimes the humbleness of ‘self-doubt’, can be seen through their words, as long as they are vulnerable enough. The saddest thing to see is a writer set up their website or blog, type their hearts away while many people read their work, and then they delete their account due to self-doubt. “Well nobody’s commenting on my blog.” I have seen blogs that had a meter count of 100,000 readers per day with little to no commenting. Your comment section is not the be-all end-all. Write for “you” -first and foremost. Also, you want quality traffic, instead of people falling onto your blog by mistake of a keyword that you used improperly. They also say that your title is very important to web crawlers. I agree, but sometimes, I like my title to be little vague. That’s just my personal spin on it. Regardless of how you get readers, when you’re a first time blogger, it’s important to network with others alike instead of hoping for people to read your work. There is a lot of effort in writing, blogging, and especially, writing a book. It’s not as easy as it sounds. When you have a passion for anything in life, in this case, writing - do it for the love of it, and then the money will follow...if you’re lucky. People can sense when others don’t have a passion for writing. It’s in their tone, their words, their lack of enthusiasm just to plug something out there. So if you’re looking to make a quick dollar out of writing, forget about it. It takes time, dedication, and every single drop of your vulnerability.

“Easy reading is damn hard writing.” ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

For more of Deb's articles, please visit: www.debrapasquella.com