The Writing Advice I Needed by Brenda Leyland

 

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Hard-pressed to choose the one best piece of writing advice I've ever received, I finally gave up trying. Instead, I created this short list of sage words that inspired and shaped my early writing life. Each piece was the best at the time it came to me.

1. For the unsure writer...

Listen to the call within to write. If God has asked you to write, he has also equipped you with everything to get the job done. These words dropped into my heart as I sat listening to Kathleen Gibson during the 2002 Spring WorDshop—my first-ever InScribe event. I recently found them jotted in an old journal and remembered how I drank in the stories Kathleen shared of her own early writing experiences. I had already begun to sense stirrings in my own heart to write. I felt the tug. That's why I signed up for the event. Though for someone who'd never forgotten her aversion to essay writing in school, this almost yearning came as a considerable surprise to me in adulthood. At first I wondered, "Are you sure you're talking to the right person, dear Lord?" 

2. You don't need permission...

You have the right to write. Really? I didn't quite believe it. Surely I needed someone wiser to encourage me along this path. I always thought 'real' writers knew since they were five years old that they wanted to write. That certainly wasn't true in my case. I was glad, therefore, for two fine books I believe providentially crossed my path (the first was suggested to me by my husband's aunt) that addressed the issue: The Right to Write by Julia Cameron and If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland. Both books became well-thumbed staples in my own library. With many statements starred and underlined, and margins filled with notations, I soon considered the authors my writing mentors. Their words reached down from the bookshelf to steady the faltering steps of one timid, aspiring writer.

3. On giving up the habit to put it off...

Stop not writing. No one cares if you write or not, so you’d better. Sit down at your desk and keep your butt in the chair. Write one passage, conversation, and let yourself do it badly. Oh, I loved these words attributed to Anne Lamott (another cherished writing mentor). I loved the twist of that first sentence, the phrase 'stop not writing'. It made me sit up and take notice... made me listen to what she was saying.

4. On getting down the first draft...

Anne Lamott notes that almost all good writing begins with 'sh*tty first drafts'. And believes these dreadful first attempts are necessary to produce quality work. Her cheeky advice released me from the unrealistic tension to get it right the first time. I could, in fact, scribble down terrible first thoughts, finally understanding that the Editor/Critic peering over my shoulder should go wait her turn somewhere else. Author Jodie Picoult's sound advice made that clear to me: You can always edit a bad page but you can't edit a blank page.

5.  Creativity begets creativity...

"I learned . . . that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness." Brenda Ueland, If You Want to Write, p. 42-43

These words connected at some level and helped me to recognize that, through my own experiences as a young Sunday School teacher years earlier, I didn't have to work up the inspiration or rack my brain for ideas. The more I used my creative juices to make the lessons come alive for my students the more the creative ideas bubbled up. Creativity begets creativity. Use the idea you have and it will call forth the reserves for the next step. What a great reminder for my writing.

6. On establishing your work standard...

Aim to write your best work every time. Although I no longer recall who shared this advice, the words really struck a chord. And they still shape my writing to this day. Whenever I sit down to write I am compelled from within to give it my best effort. No 'sloughing off ' and no saying, well, this is just a blog post or a little article or there's no remuneration for this, so it doesn't really matter if I slapdash this together. No, no, no....

We've all been forewarned that whatever we send out into the world, particularly in cyberspace, is out there. Forever. Ever giving readers a glimpse of who we are and to Whom we belong. And me being a person who longs to reflect heaven's light and beauty in all I do and say, hoping to create little patches of heaven on earth in my corner of the world, this is specially true in my writing.

7. On giving yourself some slack...

Alongside #6 above, this is my own advice to myself: There will be days when I know it isn't my best work, but it's the best I have to give today. Life happens around us, and sometimes we don't have time or energy or we aren't skilled enough at this point to shape our work into something more polished—and sometimes we have deadlines to honour. Although I still don't want to be slipshod about anything I write, I know there will be days 'when good enough is good enough'. And on those days, when I can't quite find the best words to say it, I can at least spell them correctly and with proper grammar in place.

To wind up, here is one more bit of advice that gives me self-confidence to keep writing, whether or not someone leaves a comment (wink): "Confidence is knowing you [or your writing] are not everyone's cup of tea and being okay with it." as shared by @wiseconnector on X

Brenda writes from her desk by the window that overlooks her garden, the sky, and the birds. You can find her 'slice of life' writing on her blog It's (Still) A Beautiful Life. She is also on Facebook and Instagram (under Bren Leyland).