On this day which celebrates love, passion, and all things related to romance or its enkindling, I want to remind you of one more thing.
Writing will always be a love, most demanding. Especially if you do it right–or often.
Today, embrace that. Allow all those feelings which course through you when you begin a work to be your incessant motivation to what you desire to create.
Love the work. Embrace the affair. There is no high like it.
With Love & Ink,
JBHarris
To My Greatest Love:
I would be so lost without you. I am so sorry for never telling you how I feel–negating how I feel about you, with all earnest affection. Without pretense or apology. Minimizing it when I should be shouting it. But, I am strong enough-certain enough now–to tell you all that I have held for you.
It is because of you, I have not drowned in the waters life I has tossed me in and towards. You have been a buoy, a light and a consummate map. You have caught tears, brought me sight, and given me a love everlasting.
You have been there for me–when I did no know, nor see myself! You have been found by me, taken away from me, and whispered to me as only a love can in my darkest hours. You have held me together in the palm of my hand. There is no love I know so complete as I know yours.
You are the love of my life. There is no other love like yours. In moments where I could not find my way clear, when I had no more to give, when I thought I had lost you forever–you found me.
You made me yours all over again. Loved me until I could see or reach again. I will never abandon you again, my love. Never again will I doubt, cheapen or downplay our union. The world will always know we are one.
Thank you…language.
Always, JBHarris
Writing doesn’t always follow a primrose path. Sometimes the path is dark, and scary and impossible-feeling.
But what I want to remind you of this something you may not think about: you control the path.
Yes, you.
The story cannot have life breathed into it unless it has a willing vessel, a place to grow before pushed into the world. You determine how fast, and how hard you will push the story.
You control the start and the finish–and everything in between.
With Love & Ink,
JBHarris
There is a magic in the flow, in the mastering of creative energy. I love that. We as writers chase it, demand more of it–but, with an uneasy inverse relationship.
The more of this flow the more accessible you have to be to it. You must become accustom to being available to those moments when this force comes–being willing to catch it.
Being willing to chase it and be caught by it.
This, dear ones, is the prize. If you can harness the flow, you can do anything your talent demands.
With Love & Ink,
JBHarris
What scares you about that you’re writing? What is the most intriguing thing about what you are creating? What about your work calls to you?
What is this call you ask?
The call is the incessant thinking about what it is you are creating. The call will dictate how the story/story idea will be shaped–through the force of your will of course. Chase that.
Chase the things that draw you in about the story. Chase the characters and their development, settings, horror, plots and all of their twists! But chase them. You never know what you may come across. But if you never chase–if you never hear the call–how much story will you miss?
That fear of not adding what is needed to a story, to draw your reader in, this is devastating. The nature of the beast of writing demands you pay attention to what you are creating.
Pay attention. Answer the call. Get to writing.
The utterly marvelous Anne Rice has her own take about writing. But, there is one which is applicable to almost any writer. She says, “Go to where the joy is.”
With this wisdom, I remind you, too, of the same. Go to where the joy is. Go to the subject matter that makes you happy, grants you peace, and allows you to truly write.
Find the joy. Find your joy. Find your way back to it.
With Love & Ink,
JBHarris
There has to be a reason why you do what you do, dear one. There has to be a reason that draws you back to the work, to brainstorm, to collaborate. There must be a reason why you write.
Pain.
Love.
Mourning.
Joy.
To make sense of things, or to hide other things.
But there must be a reason, and you might have to write to find it.
With Love & Ink,
JBHarris
