Sometimes I'm asked where I get my ideas–quite honestly coming up with ideas has never been an obstacle undoubtedly because my mind is so active and I believe the best writing is personal.
What happens between a writer who gets personal and the reader is like an intimate friendship, where you exchange secrets, share emotions, and feel your friendship growing. It comes from inside, a certain vulnerability that you expose on the page.
I was talking to a student the other day who shared a personal discovery with me. Early in the class, she couldn't think of any ideas for a short story. I suggested she journal daily as a way of forming story ideas. After a few weeks she reviewed her entries and realized that she had gone years without pen-in-hand and not tapped into her emotions. It was the reason she’d not been able to write anything other than school- taught structured pieces that lacked any creativity. While she didn’t unearth any big secret from childhood, or recover any repressed emotion she did have an epiphany the equivalent of a literary breakthrough. And her writing and confidence level improved tremendously.
Personal writing can help unplug wound up tension and will get you started. It’s an avenue of writing that never gets old and never fails to reward. It’s about you and even if you choose not to share, you will produce pieces that are true, unique, and ultimately self-satisfying.
I found it very revealing about myself when looking back in my life and putting pen to paper. Or as it is these day fingertips to keyboard.
ReplyDeleteIt was surprising what memories came back to me from the depths of my brain.