You have to love this. This thing called writing, its storm of chaotic creating, you must begin to enjoy.
Again: you have to love this. There is a part creativity that is tied to gratefulness. It is tied to gratefulness because that is always a power source. The more gracious you are–the easier creation becomes.
And trust me, you need to have some part of this which is writing.
You have to love it. You must be gracious. You must keep going.
With Love & Ink,
Stephen King almost burned CARRIE if not for his wife, Tabitha. Before the success of CARRIE, he was submitting short stories to magazines, had his work published and paid–but he almost threw CARRIE away.
Maya Angelou had the mentorship of James Baldwin and other writer’s groups to keep her going.
Octavia Butler said that she wrote about power so much because she had so little.
Every writer needs people in their lives to believe in them, to see brilliance in their work that their doubt cannot see or be seen. I call these people the YIELD signs. These are the people who tell you that you can, when you can’t.
They tell you that turn is a feeling.
They tell you to write writing something else.
They pre-order books for their own book clubs.
They follow your email lists, and social media.
They call you to check on the invisible people.
They tell you that you can go forward if you want. And better yet–they are there as you go. They will be there for you as you go…they will be there as you turn back around to go forward. Those people are invaluable–keep them! Don’t leave them at gas stations, or parking lots when you think you got it all together.
Take them with you…you will need them again.
What I want you to do today is to consider this (and perhaps mediate harder):
“Can I do this better?”
Editing is not the enemy.
Rewriting is not the problem.
Consider The Stretch (More about this later).
With Love & Ink,
There are parts of your writing that you should be learning from –and that you must learn from.
Without that level of humility, you will never grow, learn or learn what you can do better.
Remember that.
With Love & Ink,
The three things I want you to remember as your write today:
1.) Believe you can.
2.) Believe you will.
3.) Believe it must.
With Love & Ink,
For the love of writing, I have decided not stop.
What have you decided not to stop doing?
Let writing be part of that.
With Love & Ink,
Season 1, Episode 1 started 4 years ago today in a basement of a rehabilitation facility.
I had no idea what I was doing, or how long I would be doing it.
This podcast has introduced poets, intellectuals, put people on to indie authors, and been encouraging to others.
Today, I am proud of me. I am celebrating!
I am owning every space I am in, writing my way in and out, bringing other people with me. I’m grateful for that.
And as of this morning?
There are 184 episodes.
A Black woman did this.
A Black woman writer did this.
…that’s flex all by itself.
There is always going to be the writing.
The other part to that is: there will always be the writing.
You can do it.
No one else will.
With Love & Ink,
My first turn was soon after the first time I published my first book of poetry: LOVE SONGS OF THE UNREQUITED.
I wasn’t taught alot about marketing, making a social media presence, or developing an audience. Yet, all the great things that are happening to me at this point was trial and error.
Sometimes that is great–sometimes that is a detriment.
Yet when my first book wasn’t an instant smash, I could have stopped. But I didn’t.
I could have stopped when my first book signing that was self-funded, wasn’t as great as I wanted–I could have stopped. But I didn’t.
Not because I’m not talent, but because it was hard. It is hard.
It is that hardness, that difficulty, that is enough to make anyone stop. Yet, I did not. I could not! I wanted to see how this would shake out! I wanted to see what could happen. The curiosity of the continue make me think that I might be able to do this if I could just keep going. If I could figure this out, if I could make this my own–if I could just figure out HOW to keep going–then I would.
With my Turn–I had to push past doubt to keep going.
The Turn will demand that you believe the fear–or the fact (that you might be able to do this if you keep going).
Dear Writer:
Write.
Don’t write.
But yet, there are consequences to one–and success for the other.
Consider carefully.
With Love & Ink,
JBHarris Writing Services 