Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.
Barbara Kingsolver
I think this is the hardest for the beginning writer. The beginning writer struggles with what they should say and how they should say it, they just want to please, to be noticed, to get published. So there seems to be a struggle between finding their voice and finding what the market wants. In poetry, I seem to find the most freedom in writing…maybe just because I’m so unaware of what the market wants, so I can shut down the internal editor. How much of your writing do you do with no one looking over your shoulder?
In my inbox this morning in my freelance daily newsletter there was this great link to Nancy Bennett’s article “Play A Game and Jumpstart Your Writing”. A fun article on writing prompts. Today, use some of these ideas to inspire you in your daily writing. Now get to work!
Lovingly,
The Writing Nag