When the work gets hard, detours are a writer’s best friend.
They allow you to regroup, to withstand, and to rest even!
This is why it is important to stretch your talent—figure out what all you can do with this gift.
Poets are novelists too.
Spoken work artists can write comic books.
Essayists can do short stories.
Detours can be lifesavers.
-JBHarris
One of the things which push writers to say something meaningful is (frankly) we want it to age well! We want to say something which matters!
In order for it to matter to the world, it has to matter to us first.
-JBHarris
*Points to genre; WHAT STORY DO YOU WANT TO WRITE?
Ah, the magic (and menace) of genre!
As a BIPOC writer, you will run into this quandary (more than once) of a potential reading audience, beta readers and almost fans who will tell you some permutation of this sentence (speaking as a Black woman who writes, this is what I have been told more than once):
“Black people don’t write _________.”
It never gets easier to hear, or less aggravating to explain. The writer and MARVEL comic icon, Christopher Priest, explains such stupidity this way: “A real writer can write anything.” This is the quote that I use to diffuse any apprehension that I have to writing anything, or being relying on any other opinion other than my own to determine (or influence) what genre I want to write or what I want to write for it!
The story, the idea, the process is all mine. I didn’t need approval to start, and I will not require it to finish. Just like I fire the little White man on my shoulder who thinks his critique and approval for my work is salaried position—I dismiss those unsupportive people who tell me but for my race, I can write anything that I want. Just not that genre.
I write what I want. And so must you. Keep going!
See you next week!
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!
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
What are you waiting for?
There is a need within you to write, so why on Earth are you ignoring it? You have worlds within you waiting to be shown and explored!
Be brave and explore them…one word at a time.
With Love & Ink,
JBHarris
Hopes and wishes do not fill pages, Oracles. Wishes are what we write down in order to fulfill them. Writing is equal parts talent and decision. Put both of those together today, right now and fill pages.
With Love & Ink,
JBHarris
As this year speeds to a close, I leave you with one thing: belief in self.
The path is of the arts is fraught with doubts. Filled with second-guessing and the evil, diabolical non support of the people who say they love you.
But, what I want to tell you with 7 calendar days left of this year is stop listening to that does not serve, assist, value or help.
Stop feeding that which hurts.
This is so often the most difficult thing! That type of thinking hobbles, cripples and will kill anything creative—or different in you! I have had to discover this in my own self this week. My creative achievements are not based on the opinions of other people. My success is not determined by what other people think about it. There will always be a salty-select to remind you of failures, setbacks and other useless shenanigans.
Stop feeding what hurts.
Make the decision to give up the things which weigh you down–and soar.
You have world to conquer.
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
Hesitations are for the weak.
Stop using them.
Right now.
Whatever has you shook to write, let go of it.
You can write.
You will write.
Get up and keep going.
With Love & Ink,
JBHarris
JBHarris Writing Services 