{"id":17945,"date":"2024-11-07T04:31:23","date_gmt":"2024-11-07T04:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shop-cili.com\/?p=17945"},"modified":"2024-11-07T04:31:23","modified_gmt":"2024-11-07T04:31:23","slug":"share-your-story-and-the-writing-gods-wont-let-you-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shop-cili.com\/?p=17945","title":{"rendered":"Share Your Story and the Writing Gods Won’t Let You Fail"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

Discipline may not be your problem. Confidence might be the block. Or comparing yourself to your favourite writer could be your nemesis. Or maybe it\u2019s a fear of putting yourself out there, revealing your deepest, darkest wounds for all the world to see.<\/p>\n

One of the problems with writing an essay, and maybe writing anything, is your Uncle Max. Remember when he said, \u201cYou can\u2019t make money as a writer. Go to nursing school, honey\u201d? Or your high school English teacher, who thought he was being funny when he held up your paper in front of the whole class and said, \u201cKeep your day job\u201d\u200a? Or just your own inner critic whispering, then yelling, \u201cWho do you think you are? What, you\u2019ve got something so interesting to say that everyone needs to hear it?\u201d Or maybe your inner Eeyore tells you, \u201cEverything\u2019s been said before, so why even try?\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s disarm these ogres one by one, shall we?<\/p>\n

Nothing compares to you<\/h2>\n
\n

Who wants to follow Emerson or C.\u2009S. Lewis or Susan Sontag? Who wants to compete with \u200a\u200aJames Baldwin and George Orwell? Who wants to come up against the likes of Alice Walker, Virginia Woolf or Angela Davis? If I compared myself to Anna Quindlen, I\u2019d never write another word.<\/p>\n

Actually, I did try to get Anna Quindlen\u2019s job. It was 1994, and I\u2019d just heard an interview with her on NPR. She announced she was leaving her coveted perch at The New York Times<\/em>, where she\u2019d gained a huge national following for her column \u201cLife in the Thirties.\u201d She was leaving because she wanted to write novels and be home with her kids. I didn\u2019t have any desire to write novels, and at that point I desperately wanted to be away from my kids.<\/p>\n

So, after I turned off the radio, I gathered a bunch of my pieces that had aired on All Things Considered<\/em> or been published in various newspaper Sunday magazines, put them in a big manila envelope, and addressed them to the Times <\/em>Executive Editor Abe Rosenthal.<\/p>\n

In those days I swung between positively knowing that I\u2019d never be able to write another good sentence and having the balls to apply for Anna Quindlen\u2019s actual position at The<\/em> (excuse me) New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

One of the things I say over and over in the writing workshops I teach is, \u201cDon\u2019t compare yourself to ANYONE!!!\u201d<\/em> So instead of measuring yourself to Zadie Smith or Mary Kerr or Flannery O\u2019Connor (God knows I tried to be her for years), let your favourite one become your inspiration, your teacher, your muse. Read their work, and then sit down and write as a tribute to them.<\/p>\n

Of course, when I go to write a new piece myself, I realize that not falling into the comparison well is easier said than done. When you feel yourself starting to slip is precisely when you block your ears or take a gummy or become your own dearest friend\u2014and you sit down and write the damn thing.<\/p>\n

Your story has never been told<\/h2>\n
\n

If you read an essay someone else wrote about being a kid whose mother died in a car wreck, and that\u2019s exactly what happened to you, it\u2019s foolishness to think there\u2019s no point in writing yours. <\/p>\n

No one else can write your story. No one else had your back porch with the loose step, no one else had your Aunt Esther with the space between her front teeth, no one else got bubble gum stuck in her braids and had all her hair cut off the day before her first day of sixth grade at a new school but you. No one else is you.<\/p>\n

If you get intimidated, it\u2019ll stop you. Don\u2019t stay in the shadows thinking, Well, no one will be that interested<\/em>. How will you know if anyone would be interested if you never even put it into words?<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s safe to say that we\u2019ve all either heard the question \u201cWho do you think you are?\u201d or \u201cWhat makes you think anyone would care about your story?\u201d or we\u2019ve uttered it to ourselves. So many of us have been told \u201cYou\u2019re not good enough,\u201d \u201cThere\u2019s only so much to go around,\u201d \u201cOnly certain people get published,\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re not thin enough,\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re not pretty enough,\u201d and on and on. <\/p>\n

But what we all have in common is that little wise person in our bellies that, if we listen hard enough, we can hear say, People will care. Yes, you are good enough. You are indeed. You are everything. You are the universe<\/em>. And the universe takes orders well. Now go write about whatever it is your unique personal history tells you to write.<\/p>\n

If you need a little more of a mindset shift, go buy a Ganesh (remover of obstacles) to keep on your desk. Go pick out your outfit for your big meeting with your editor. Go rehearse your gratitude speech thanking your agent and your mother \u2026 and me.<\/p>\n

Or just sit down and write.<\/p>\n

Sharing is caring for yourself<\/h2>\n
\n
\n