Writing Inspiration

I have been on a roll with my writing lately and I do hope it continues. I am feeling good and purposeful and committed to staying on my path. It inspires me to find writing which validates my own gut felt truths.

One of my favorite reading topics is the personal life of the writer. Quite often I am much more intrigued by the thought processes and personal stories of the writer more so than the writing itself. I have found some inspiration today which I will now share with you.

It feels good to find substance which causes one to reel back and say, "Yes, that is it exactly! Thank you for putting into words, what I feel to be true."

I do like the compilations put together of writing bests. One remarkable set of writings can always be found in "The Best American" series which designates different writing genres such as best short stories, best science writing, and the one that I am reading now is "The Best American Essays" (the 2001 edition). Someday I should like to earn the right to be in such a book. It is most likely a pipe dream but where do most great things start? With a dream.

Kathleen Norris, writes the introduction for this particular edition, with "Introduction: Stories Around a Fire."

I will share some select passages which resounded with me. Norris writes about the words of one escort as she was on tour promoting her latest book:

"On our last day together, my escort said to me, "I think I get it. You're a real writer." Surprised, I asked her what she meant. "I mean," she replied, "you didn't write a book in order to get a radio talk show." Her experience to date in the Book Biz had been with self proclaimed counselors and spiritual gurus who regarded their books as steppingstones to greater things. And the escort quickly realized that she was merely one of the "little people" they would use and discard on their climb to the top. Authors screamed at her over trivial matters; one writer of a book on relationships banished her from a bookstore because she was "giving off negative energy" and then appeared a few minutes later preening and smiling before the audience, a model of calm assurance. A psychic phones her at 3 am to see how many copies of her book were in the stores they were to visit the next day. Because she wanted to keep her job, the woman did not respond by saying that if she were truly a pyschic, she would already know."

Norris goes on to describe the caliber of writers in this edition of Best American Essays: "It is safe to say that none of the writers in this book are struggling to put words on paper because they want a radio talk show or syndicated column of the daily newspaper. They don't want anything at all other than to tell a story, to explore an idea or situation through the act of writing. Unable to escape the sense that this story must be told, the writer of literature more or less reluctantly concludes, I am the person who must tell it. Or try to tell it. An essay, after all, is merely an attempt. It has no presumption of success and no ulterior or utlilitarian purpose, which makes it unique, a welcome open space in the crowded, busy landscape of American life."

And lastly Norris concludes:

"A genuine essay feels less like a monologue than a dialogue between writer and reader. This is a story I need, we conclude after reading the opening paragraph. It will tell me something about the world that I didn't know before, something I sensed but could not articulate."

There are as many purposes and motivations to write as there are individual writers. Writing is more than an art form. It can also be an occupation, a paid for profession. One does not have to be a starving artist in order to feel good about their creations. Yet reaching beyond the promoting, marketing, and publishing pursuits is the core of a human being. There, at your gut level, motivation and intent are important. I never wish to become a rat in a maze, seeking the next best thing around the corner, with no understanding of why I am in the maze to begin with, and with no knowledge of what constitutes the "prize." I am a romantic at heart and I do believe in a core self based upon integrity and a congruence with self. The prize for me is in releasing the stories from my mind, and setting them free to live on their own.

Joy Williams in her essay, "Uncanny the Singing Which Comes from Certain Husks," explains the drive of the writer in the best way I have heard yet.

She writes: "The writer doesn't write for the reader. He doesn't write for himself either. He writes to serve...something. Somethingness. The somethingness that is shelter by the wings of nothingness...those exquisite, enveloping, protecting wings."

Yes! That is it exactly.

I hope that this has inspired someone today. So commence to writing. It is good for the soul.