  Spiritual
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What enables us to be a writer?
This week's Spiritual Newsletter has a peek at why writing is difficult, but worthwhile.
kittiara |
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I doubt this will come as anything new for any of you, but being a writer is hard! This is especially the case the further you progress in this trade. At first, you might be writing some stories, poems, essays or articles and that's complicated enough. It's also a wonderful thing to do, and might trigger the need to take things further, and undertake new projects.
It doesn't help that many of us are perfectionists. That's not a bad thing, but it can stop us from completing our projects, just because we keep editing, and editing more, to eventually lose the enthusiasm for that particular piece. On the other hand, if we do want to publish something, it needs to be good. It needs to stand out from the crowd, make the reader feel involved, make the reader care about your writing and what happens to the characters. Yes, being a writer is hard.
For the longest while, I have had a major writer's block. It's lasted for well over a year and it's stopped me from being as active on this site as I used to be. After all, how do I justify being on a writing site when I can't write? Yet, I have the need to write, and in order to solve my problem I decided to try find the cause of it.
Being a writer is a bit different than most other hobbies and arts. To bring our projects alive to the reader, we place a bit of ourselves into our words. We channel our emotions, feelings, thoughts, morals and core beliefs on to the paper and thus to the reader. Even when we write about worlds very different than ours, or plots set in the far future, we'll still be sharing a little bit of ourselves. It's pretty much inevitable.
I think this leaves us vulnerable in some way. In order to write horror stories, we need to tap into our dark side, and our imagination can become slightly morbid. To write poetry, we need to open our hearts and share our true feelings, good and bad. Sometimes it's easier to shield ourselves from those not so happy thoughts and emotions. But then, it would leave our writing rather bland.
I used to have a rich imagination. Then I went through a time of bad anxiety attacks and I learned to control my thoughts so much, that it probably stopped my creativity along with the attacks. Once I realised this, I decided to try find a balance and as soon as I'd made that decision, a friend of mine gave me a book with hundreds of prompts. Good timing.
In the first few chapters, the author goes into exactly what I'd been thinking - to be a writer you must know yourself, because who you are gives you your own unique voice. It helps shape your characters, your storylines, the feel of your poetry and the statements you make in your articles.
Some questions he asked were:
* What makes you angry? And how do you deal with this anger?
* What gives you hope?
* What things have you done that made you feel guilty, and how have you dealt with this guilt?
* What do you believe in?
* Have you ever experienced grief, and how did you overcome this?
Of course, it was worded more eloquently than that and there were excellent prompts to explore these questions in-depth, but they did make me look at my work and my characters. I do see those touches of my own beliefs and personality in my characters, even if I created them to be so different than I am.
It makes me think that being a writer is like being on a spiritual quest. The more you explore the world, even the universe, the more you evolve. The more questions you ask, the more questions you discover, but along the way you change. The more you look underneath the surface, the more you find there's so much still to learn. And the more you learn about yourself, the more you can channel into your writing for the reader to explore.
Writing is hard, but oh so interesting.
kittiara
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The Spiritual Newsletter Team welcomes any and all questions, suggestions, thoughts and feedback, so please don't hesitate to write in! 
Elaine's Beary Limited*~  - I'm not sure exactly what I believe. I know there's a God cause the world is just to beautiful not to have a higher being and all the beauty is so intracut that the makeup is proof of a higher being.
Thanks so much for writing in! I agree with you . Everything in this world, from the smallest one-celled creature to the highest mountains seems to work together, and that is still something that fills me with awe, and makes me believe there has to be an intelligent design to all of it.
~~~
fleckgirl - Kittiara-I thoroughly enjoyed reading of your various experiences with different religions. Very interesting & I think I find myself in the same position as you. I have certain beliefs without much basis, but I'm not a stringent believer in all things I've been taught over the years & nothing has struck such a major chord that it has been life-altering.... Enjoy the journey while you continue to search. I think there's something to be said for that & maybe that IS who you are supposed to be! 
Great NL~
Fleck
Thanks so much for the feedback, Fleck! I am glad you enjoyed the newsletter . It's also good to know that I'm not alone in my search. Many people seem so certain in their faith, or lack thereof. But indeed, the seach is fascinating and quite enjoyable  . Best of luck on your own journey!
~~~
Wishing you a week filled with inspiration,
The Spiritual Newsletter Team:
Sophurky  , THANKFUL SONALI Library Class!  , kittiara
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Spiritual: April 29, 2009 Issue [#3023]
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