“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.” Virginia Woolf
Oh, the Stories We Have to Tell!
The human experience is made up of stories—good, hard, sad, ugly, beautiful…memorable. Do we tell enough of them? Do we write enough of them? Probably not—but because we live and have a soul, our stories are valuable.
When I was in junior high, my language arts teacher taught us to write about what we know. It must have made an impression, because I can still see her telling this to our class!
Here are some important points to think about:
- Write about what you know—experiences you’ve had, real people (actual names or made up) you’ve known, familiar/remembered places.
- If you’ve kept a journal, read and refer back to it. Just one word may remind you of an event you could use to jump-start a story.
- Read. The more we read, the more we learn. When we read a lot, we learn to distinguish between good writing and bad, what words work well, how to structure scenes and sentences, what types of stories are worth spending time reading. And we often learn all of this without even realizing it.
- Write write write. Set a goal to write something every day. Even if it’s fifteen minutes, write something.
- Remember that your first draft is just that: a draft. It is not the final product, so it may be terrible. But it’s a start, and you’ll be glad you’ve got it! (More on this later.)
- Don’t edit while you write. Once you finish, read from the beginning—you’ll start editing somewhat naturally.
- Have trusted friends or family help with the editing process and give constructive feedback.
- Hire a professional editor to get your story ready for publication.
This list is short, but I hope it is enough to get you started.
About that first draft
One thing I’ve begun to practice with almost everything I write: when I get to the “end,” I let it rest for a day or so, then go back, reread, and almost always rewrite—at least part of it. I do this with emails, letters, essays, blogs, social media posts—anything I plan to publish or share with others. By doing this, I make sure I’m saying what I want to say by using the right words, only the words needed, and that I’ve communicated with love and grace. I’ve looked back with chagrin at some of the letters or papers I wrote years ago that weren’t edited in this way, and all I can say is that I’m glad those are behind me!
