Begin the beginning.
The blank page is waiting for you to etch all your thoughts on! Never allow the fear of a start to cheat you out of what awaits you! You need only continue!
Begin the beginning.
With Love & Ink,
JBHarris
There is a release that happens once you finish a written work. This release is this transferring of effort and energy into something tangible? There is no high like it.
There is also something utterly scary about beginning a new work as well. This new thing, only present in your mind, yet biting and burning to get out of you? There is no fear like it.
Embrace the fear, prepare of the joy.
But prepare for the work.
With Love & Ink,
JBHarris
“Let it stir…”
Stephen King says to let the story ‘reveal itself.’ To that I say, ‘let it stir.’
What this means is to let it develop. Let it brew. Let it come forth naturally—just like woman that’s pregnant.
Just like when you stir coffee or hot tea, making it just the way you like it.
Let it stir. Let it bubble. Let it brew.
The idea you have, the one you keep rolling around, or you aren’t sure about, follow it. Let it stir, let it stir you.
You’ll be amazed what you come up with when given when you’re patient with yourself.
With Love & Ink,
JBHarris
When you neglect your imagination, you make its soil sun-baked and hard. It cracks and curdles under the heat of inspiration, but there is no water from anticipation of what could grow there.
You rob yourself of the joy of creation. Of wondering what could be.
With Love & Ink,
JBHarris
Look it up!
Writers are these weird people with thee strangest walking around information!
Example: The pH of blood is 7.35.
Yes, that’s a real fact. But, I digress.
Writers need to remain curious! Things that intrigue you, scare you, turn you on, look them up! Your research base as a writer needs to be ever expanding!
This includes words you don’t know—vocabulary is still your meat and potatoes. Remember that.
Good luck!
I believe in you!
In Love & Ink,
JBHarris
It’s easy for a writer to abandon a work.
Writing can be frustrating, thankless and utterly maddening. However, the wisdom I can offer you is the same which I have gleaned from Anne Rice. There are times where the/a WIP can be abandoned in favor of something more favorable. However, save it!
Don’t delete the work–put it away.
There may be a time where you will able to go back to it. Where you will have the time, the gumption, hell, even the confidence to go back to it.
When all else fails, fellow writer-scribe-oracle, pause and regroup. Your imagination will thank you for it.
In Love & Ink,
JBHarris
I’m constantly coming up with ideas. I have to record them or write them down to keep track of them all! However, the scariest part is still the start. Not the research, but the start–the actual putting of idea to paper or screen.
But the fear is always, “How is this going to come together?!” However, the fear of not doing, consumes the fear of doing. The start is terrifying! But it’s more terrifying to keep all that locked up.
Let the people in your head out!
In Love & Ink,
JBHarris
