Calling all people of the blogosphere (especially writers!) I am thrilled to have a guest post by the beautiful Rayne At The Bus Stop today. Doesn’t she have a stunning name, guys? Rayne Abigail Morales. I could even be jealous.
Anyways, Rayne has written an amazingly fantastic and extremely helpful guide to the ‘joys of being a writer’. Be warned, if you are a writer, this will make you scuttle off to find your pens immediately, but not before you’ve been captivated by this amusing and engaging account by a truly wonderful story-teller (and definitely not before you’ve left us a comment!) Now, let’s go!
Let’s pretend this is me reading Rayne’s guide, okay? ‘Cause I want it to be!!! I love this girl. Go Lizzie Bennet! Anyone else? (Before this turns into a rant)
The Joys of Being a Writer
Howdy, everyone!
I’m Rayne from over at The Bus Stop. I’m a fourteen-year-old girl, a pianist, a big sister, and a writer of contemporary short stories. I blog to have the opportunity to share my stories with others, to build an audience, and to find and interact with other bloggers who share similar passions.
I’m excited to be writing for Gracie’s terrific audience today!
Gracie’s blog has an inspiring theme of using our passions to change the world. I absolutely love this ambitious and encouraging blog! Most of us in the blogosphere have a passion for writing, so today, I’m writing a post…
…To all the writers out there who are feeling discouraged:
My friends, would you describe the writer’s journey as long and hard? Are those the first two words that pop into your head when you think of the writing process? If so, you’re not alone. But have you ever considered that being a writer is also fun?
Sure, maybe when you were brand new at writing, you were excited, fresh with ideas and full of enthusiasm. But by now, you feel like your writing is dead. The bad news is, if you feel like your writing is dead, it probably is. The good news is, this can be fixed! But bringing your writing back to life does not start with fixing the writing itself, it starts with you. If you’re not excited or enthusiastic about your writing, your writing will be dead, because writing will always reflect its author, no matter how far along your voice is in the refining process.
So how do we change our own attitudes about writing? Well, we all know it won’t inspire us to write if we see writing as a box to check off on the list, or necessary to keep the blog running. So here’s the inspiring truth: Being a writer is fun. It’s an exciting journey we writers get to go on! We have so much creativity and discovery at our disposal. As Victor Hugo said, “A writer is a world trapped inside a person.”
My dad is an awesome writer. Guys, he writes for hours and hours many days. Sometimes I wonder how he doesn’t get tired of it. Yet when I asked him, “What’s fun about being a writer?” his answer was immediately, “Oh, lots of things!”
I’m going to give you guys two of his many reasons and build off of them! Here we go!
- The discovery process – having a single thought, then sitting down to write it and ending up with something more thought-out, more refined, and more elaborated, than your original thought.
When I say, “discovery process”, I don’t mean the research you get to do in the writing process (although that is both interesting and important), but I mean the discovery of yourself!
As the Nobel-prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez (who is Colombian like me, I note with pride) once said, all stories start with an image. I remember the first time I heard that. An image, really? Not a plot, not an outline? Because those can be so tricky to develop and are boring anyways.
I recently sat down to write a story, and I had a single thought, a single image. I imagined two children playing a pretend game (a classic knight-and-princess roleplay). I didn’t ask myself any questions, I didn’t make myself write an outline, all I did was write. See, being a writer who starts with an image is like being a cameraman. You get to take a single image and choose the angles, when to zoom in or zoom out, the filters, etc. AND HOW FUN IS THAT.
Where were we? Oh, yes, so I began to write my image…
And as I looked more and more closely at the image, I learned about my characters’ personalities and looks. I heard their dialogue and watched them play. And by the time I was finished observing the image, a story was already being formed. You can read it here
So yes, the discovery process is such a fun part of being a writer! Discovering what YOU can do with a single thought, a single image! You can take a single moment and make a story, you can take a single person and write an entire lifetime, you can take a single setting and write a history!
With that exciting thought said, we can move on to another thing my dad said is fun about being a writer.
- The satisfaction of creating – we as people love to create. We write, we build, we invent, we explore. People who create improve life.
Writing is hard work, yes! It’s a long process, yes! It takes a heck of a lot of time, yes! But it is very rewarding.
Just think about it. You’ve created something that wasn’t there before. I mean, it was NON-EXISTENT before you came along!
For example, take genius Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the hit Broadway musical, Hamilton. He took the story of the founding father, Alexander Hamilton, which used to be nothing more than history facts, and made it interesting and compelling. He took someone who to us was no more than a history figure and made him matter to us. And people LOVED IT. So, fellow writers, don’t throw away your shot to create something brand new! (Any other Hamilfans out there reading this right now?!)
Now to use an example of one of my own works. I wrote a short story last fall entitled “My Tiny House”. I saw an image of a small house sitting next to a large house, and I went for it. My dad put the story on his Facebook page, and a teacher read it to her fourth-grade class. I created something that wasn’t there before, and it entertained a whole class of kids!
So remember: writing is a long journey, but if you stay at it, you will reap the rewards. You will create things that weren’t there before that will challenge, entertain, or inform others.
Let’s wrap it up, shall we?
Being a writer is full of discovery and reward! We writers get to have a lot of fun as we write to learn more about ourselves, about others, about life, and share it with others. If you are feeling discouraged about your writing, if your writing feels dead, stop in your tracks and look at yourself. Are you inspired and motivated to write? You have the capability to do great work – see it as a thrilling adventure, not as an obligation or chore.
So, my fellow writers, take heart! You have an exciting journey ahead of you – all you have to do is pack your bags and go! Or in this case, all you have to do is WRITE. And use it to make a difference in the lives of other people.
Signing off,
Rayne from the Bus Stop
Wow! Who enjoyed that? Who is exhilarated with that surge of inspiration that’s rushing through your body right now? Who is dancing around the room, delighting in the joys of being a writer? #proud
Or dancing round a field. Either will do.
Please leave a comment, it makes my day and I’m sure Rayne would love to hear from you too. Thanks, guys, you’re all awesome.
Bye,
P.S. Since I’m doing GIFs in this post (which I rarely use) I have to include this one, as it’s from my favourite film of all time: ‘Calamity Jane’
