Write Your Way Real talk + resources for writers

Tough Love Talk Time 📣

The muse. Lightning strikes of inspiration. The perfect writing mood. An idyllic, leisurely, writerly life full of fanciful conversations and exalting compatriots.

Many of us have fallen into the pit of romanticizing these as the building blocks of great writing, the trappings of writers worth reading. I've spent time there, and maybe you have, too.

Zero judgment, all the commiseration!

But the work is really the thing separating writers from would-be's, authors from amateurs. The grind, the frustration, the struggle, the grit, are all part of it. Foibles, flailing, and the first five drafts falling flat. That's the stuff that gets the book done and worth reading.

Inspiration is romance; work is love.

Your WIP is a work in progress, not a wish or idea in progress. Collections comprising an author's entire catalog are called "the complete works of..." not the "complete musings" or the "complete wishes of".

Nothing against wishes and ideas; they're great beginnings. But beginnings need middles and ends to become stories, and stories are what people read. Stories make novels and memoirs.

Writing is love and writing is work.

Everything other than work evaporates or shrinks when it's exposed to sunlight and oxygen.

So, what do you truly need in order to do the love work of writing? What do you need to move forward?

Take a moment, get real and honest with yourself. Be practical, both literally and figuratively. How will you sustain a writing practice that moves your current project forward?

What in your WIP is not working? Once you diagnose what's causing you to hit a wall, you can you fix what's wrong and be on your way.

I know it's daunting and scary, but I also know you can do it. No, I'm pretty sure you will do it. You want it, you've got or can get what it requires. It's just a matter of getting some stuff out of your way, making room for the work, getting in there.

✨ Reminder: You don't have to go it alone

I help writers find direction, course correct, navigate roadblocks, and move beyond breakdowns in their memoirs and novels with greater clarity and ease. Whether it's starting or revising, Draft 1 or Draft 7, you don't have to go it alone.

Click the button below to set up a 20-minute conversation that's FREE of charge and FREE of strings, to see how I might be able to support you on your journey to a polished and publishable manuscript.

Social Media is Our Worst Frenemy

At the risk of being even more preachy and pedantic...😬...I want to share my strong sense that social media should be used sparingly.

Too much time in the cesspool where (almost) everyone shouts over everyone else, jockeys have the "winning" opinion, best clapback, and widest attention can be a real drain on creativity. And that doesn't even include the doom scrolling we're all bound to do at points.

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I get exhausted after ten minutes. If I don't catch myself, I'll find I'm composing posts I never share, on topics I won't be thinking about the next day. All to be in the conversation.

Social media is designed to make us feel like we need to be in EVERY conversation, about everything, all the time. It's a neat trick to keep us engaged.

Being part of the conversation is important, and there are many important conversations being had. But, we have to stop and ask ourselves which conversations we actually know and care enough about to give our time and energy to. More than that, we have to be mindful that online conversations will only go so far (and usually not in a positive direction).

We can't afford to deplete our creativity and energy for likes and shares. The things that matter to us, from our own writing to the larger issues we care about, must be what we nurture foremost.

So the next time you're rolling up your sleeves to get into a war of words online, poised to bicker, take a breath and take a beat. If it's not doing anything more than giving you momentary satisfaction, just move on.

Write an essay, an Op-Ed, a blog post, an article, a poem instead. Use your anger, dismay, horror, sorrow, and righteousness as fuel. Write. Make the calls, the donations, the community connections that actually result in progress. Invest more of yourself in lasting impact than transient interaction. Write.

MWBC's Next Read

The Memoir Writers' Book Club is back this month, with Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton. We're looking at this book because it's playful and poignant, and includes more than just straight-up narrative, which might be a great option for some of the stories you need to tell.

🗓 We'll meet February 27th, at 7:00pm EST, over Zoom. I'll be sending questions for consideration and conversation next week. Save your spot.

Until next time, write on!

Cornelia ✍🏼 ✨