Blogging Insights 3.0 # 8 — Your Backstory
We do what we do because we love it, need to do it, or both. Writing is like breathing. If I don’t write, I suffocate. My friend needs to compete, to be active. To play golf or she will suffocate.
I started writing as soon as I learned to read, which was about 45 minutes after someone handed me a book. It was as if a switch had been thrown in some circuit in my brain. Words felt right. Putting words on paper was exactly the same as speaking, but took longer. I didn’t mind the extra time because I could go back and fix written words. Being able to change my words and keep changing them until they said exactly what I wanted them to say was the grail at the end of the line.
I was awkward socially and my verbal skills were not well-suited to my age. I was not talented at sports. No one wanted me on her team. But I could write, I could read. It gave me wings.
If you are going to be a writer, you know it. Practice will make you a better writer, can help you understand how to build a plot and produce books that publishers will buy, but writing itself is a gift. If you have it, you know it. I want to also point out that while fiction writing seems to be the thing we all want to do, there are many ways to be a writer. If fiction isn’t your forte, maybe information, news, or commentary will turn out to be your special gift. Some of us are not fiction writers, but nonetheless, we are writers.
Writers have words in their head waiting to be turned into text. We have heads full of words, sentences, pronouns, adjectives, and dependent clauses. Writing talent comes in an endless variety of flavors. The gift is freely given, but you have to work at it. Use your gifts and WRITE.
Maybe you should be doing some other kind of art or you are a secret math genius. When you find the right thing, you will know it. It will feel right. There’s a giant world out there and there’s a place saved in it for you.
You will never know how good you might have been unless you try.
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Categories: #Blogging, #Photography, #Writing, Arts, Literature, Words
SERENDIPITY: SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Hi Marilyn, I agree that we all have our talents and enjoy different things. It’s a great thing. The world would be very dull if we were all the same.
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And yet so many people seem to feel that everyone SHOULD be exactly the same. Pretty much whatever they are, so should be everyone else. It would be a very dull world, but I think a lot of people want exactly that. A dull world with NO surprises. We are not them.
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This is great Marilyn – a wonderful description of yourself as a writer and a reminder to all of us to make the most of our own talents, whatever they may be!
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I’ve met a lot of people who really WANT to write but they have no talent. I mean NO talent. They just want what they imagine “the life of a writer” should be. Artistic and very cool. Of course it isn’t like that at all because few writers make a living at writing — at least fiction. Most labor at something else and have to fit fiction writing into whatever time remains after the day’s work is done. Then you mean the opposite — those with lots of talent who never even gave it a try.
Talent isn’t a gift everyone gets. But I also understand. Talent — especially in the arts — is rarely a secure way to make a living. As a part-time thing, life tends to get in the way. It’s how I found my way into technical/informational writing. I needed to earn a living and the only thing I did well enough was writing. Unfortunately, you can’t write all day then switch gears and write different stuff at night. Everyone warned me about that but I was sure I’d beat the odds.
I didn’t.
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I so understand this and could not agree more. you know if you know.
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So many people read a bit of Hemingway when they were young and wanted HIS life. It wasn’t such a great life and he wasn’t a happy man. But it sure SOUNDED romantic.
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Reblogged this on Anita Dawes and Jaye Marie.
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Thank you!
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💕
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I am sharing this, Marilyn, for everyone should read this valuable insight into wholeness…
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I think we all get some kind of gift, not necessarily in the arts, but SOMETHING. Most people. And many people ignore that spark because it’s not something of which mom and dad approve. I was lucky. My mother didn’t think writing was a good gig, but she supported me anyway. It turned out it was a very good gig for a lot of years but neither of us could have foreseen it.
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There are a lot of things that I enjoy doing, still waiting to find out which one is the special one, Marilyn… 🎓🙏🏻
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You try this and that — and eventually, something “sticks.” Photography was like that for me. Painting required space I didn’t have — not with a toddler in the house — but I could do everything with a camera. It was never something I could use as a profession. I’m really not good enough and also, professional photography is not fun. As a hobby, it’s a joy.
You’ll find it. In the meantime. trying out stuff is also a lot of fun! Enjoy the hunt.
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That’s half the fun…
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You’re so right Marilyn, everyone has their special talent. We all just need to find it.
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Which probably starts off by actually looking for it. Too many people rely on other people to tell them what to do.
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That’s the easy way out
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It may seem easy, but I think in the end it is also the hardest. You always wonder what you could have been had you lived our OWN way. Doubts aren’t fun.
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That’s true. But I believe that we do come to the place in life that’s destined for us.
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Mostly we do. But not everyone.
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Yes, not everyone.
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