Who is the real you, and why do you write? The two go hoof and hoof.
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Creativity can hinge on expressing honest emotion that your inner child experiences exquisitely, but how does the writer know whether she's expressing her real self? Maybe by looking at why she's writing.
The real inner kid we all carry around inside ourselves doesn't give a moo what other people think of her. There's another side to the inner kid part of our personality that cares desperately what other people think. If Fake Kid has control, she'll write books, poems, and stories she believes will please others, or at least not make her relatives mad. She may have her eye on the money her work may bring in. Nothing wrong with that! But there's a difference between pandering to what you guess may be the market of the moment such as a look-alike 50 shades of some color or another and writing that feeds your soul. Can the twain never meet? Do you have to write for either love or money?
It might be fun to find out, you think?
As long as the real you and the love are there, the money may follow, or not. But I think the authentic you needs to write what you truly care about because a fake you, writing only to please others, will reek. Readers can sniff out a phony with the aplomb of a pig snuffling for truffles.
So, let's go back to thinking about why you write.
“I write because I have to,” said one Moo workshop participant. “I have thousands of words running around in my head. I write what I see, what I read about, what I know to be true.”
Other workshop participants shared that they write to inspire, to educate, to create laughter, to make sense of things, to control a story.
“It puts me in the present,” or “It puts things in perspective,” or “It makes me feel less lonely.”
All of those reasons sound real to me. What do you think?
Writers need to be real. We need to know who we are, to be honest with ourselves, and to offer words to our readers that share our own moo of who.
Sounds good, but, how? Right?
By listening. Sit in a quiet room if it's only for five minutes at a time. Breathe deeply. Consider who you are and why you want to write. When you relax into yourself, your words will flow like milk from a dairy cow. Writers need a good ear as much as a musician does. Listen first to your own music and then share it with the world. We need to hear you.
Happy writing!
Nan Lundeen
http://www.mooingaround.com/
http://www.nanlundeen.com/
Nan Lundeen's book of poems, The Pantyhose Declarations, is available at amazon.com. She is seeking a publisher for her handbook, The Moo of Writing: How To Milk Your Potential.
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