learning

The I In You Series-IMAGINATION

What Do You See?

Fear is the enemy of imagination!

 

​One of the things about writing is the use of your imagination! Also, it grants you the freedom as a minority/BIPOC writer to make the world you want to see—one word at a time.

So, what do you want to see? Every story starts with you first, dear writer. From inception to publishing, it all begins with you. So, what is it that you want to see in the work you write? Remember the words of Mother Morrison:  “If there is a book you want to read, you must write it.”

What idea have you been thinking of that your mind keep bringing you back to? What does it look like? What would it be like to write it? What tools would you need, do you need, in order to write it? This can also be likened to the Prewriting/Brainstorming phase of the writing process. 

As you formulate what it is you want to write, remember it is you that must write it—only you can see what you want the world to see. 

​

See you next week!

 

Overview: The I In You Series

Remember to listen to The Writers Block Podcast found on Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Spotify. This series started on the podcast in April 2019 and is my intellectual property. Thank you.

Representation matters.

As a writer who identifies as Black, cisgender, heterosexual woman who writes, I am aware that most fiction is neither written for me or by those whom look like me.

The brilliant Walter Mosley said that in order for your characters to exist in the culture, they have to exist in the fiction. With that said, our jobs as writers is to write what is not there, what is not there, and even who should be there!

The writer-educator bell hooks said that no woman has ever written enough. I agree. I also submit that no minority person has written enough.

No Black person.

No Ingenious person.

No Latin/Latindad/Latinx person.

No Person of color.

No one that identifies as at the intersection of either of those identifies and any part of the LGBTQIA+ community has.

Over the next 5 weeks we will discuss the following topics, which I call the 5 I’s Of Representation. All these things, I believe, need to be considered when writing:

Imagine-

What do you see?

Image–

What do you want to show?

Identify (points to genre)-

What story do you want to write?

Identity–

Who do you want to see?

Intelligence–

How are you going to develop your characters?

Whether you realize it or not, you bring all your identities into every word you write, to every page you fill! You, as a writer, are still comprised of the some total of your two-fold experiences: those experiences in the world, and your experiences in the world as what you identify as. What you want to see in the world already exists in the form of YOU.

Put YOU in the world—this series will show you how.

With Love & Ink,

JBHarris, Founder Hesed Writing & Communication Services

Encouragement Pages-04/05/2021

One of the best things about research is what you might find, find out and the development of the rest of your walking around knowledge.

Research allows you to expand your knowledge base, which enables you to write the work you desire.

Enjoy the research. Enjoy the questions that come up! Understand that as a writer, reading and research will always be a part of what is required of you.

With Love & Ink,

JBHarris

The New Things

Being a writer is one of thee most maddening things I have ever done! For every project that I want to do, there are 4 others that spring up. They seduce me from the current work, and then I leave them–jilted and guilty –to return to the first love. Determined to finish what I started.

This is what writers do though, dear ones! We create! And in the fury of creating, we have these side loves that call to us. These things we start when the first love (read: current work) has us in a funky place with no way out. I mean, Octavia Butler wrote Fledgling as a side project because the other work she was writing was ‘too much’! Wri

Encouragement Pages-01/29/2020

Self-rejection is a slow poison.

It is a poison whose apothecary is familiar. Whom is familiar with their victims as well as their enemies.

But what happens when they are one and the same?

Every time you reject a story, a portion of your imagination vanishes. Every time you scrap a story because you’re scared to write it, more of you vanishes.

Rage against the dying of the light.

Poison is for those dying or marked for death.

Writing is a source of life.

With Love & Ink,

JBHarris

Encouragement Pages-01/24/2020

Be gentle with yourself today.

The work in progress is called this for a reason. The progress in this work can be incremental—but do it. No matter how small or insignificant.

Do the work.

Happy, loud or sad, but do it.

With Love & Ink,

JBHarris

Encouragement Pages-01/22/2020

Shameless plug to remind you to read.

Writers are readers, inquisitive about the world around them so they can create another. If you’re stuck in process of creating an WIP and become discouraged, take a break. Fill up that blank time with a book.

Sometimes the words of others, stir our own.

With Love & Ink,

JBHarris

Enouragement Pages-12/20/2019: The Grand What If (2)

Being a writer means you will/may always have questions. The toughest ones to answer always involve The Why.

Why do you write?

Why aren’t you writing?

Why are you afraid to write?

Regardless of genre, or length of project, you will have to answer these questions.

Sometimes once during the course of a work, sometimes repeatedly in the course of a day!

But they must be answered.

Moreover, they must be answered by you.

With Love & Ink,

JBHarris

Encouragement Pages-12/18/2019: The Grand What-If’s (1)

The end of the month—end of the year!—is in a matter of weeks.

To that observation, I leave you with this question:

What if you believed you could do it?

I mean it, what would happen you believed you could write the work you set out to create—independent of other people’s opinions or support?

Only you can answer this. And should do so immediately.

With Love & Ink,

JBHarris