Oh God, what do I title it??!!!

I am reading a book titled, Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer, by Roy Peter Clark, who is vice president at the Poynter Institute, “one of the most prestigious schools for journalists in the world.” Laaateeedaaah. But, his book is not pretentious in the least, which is why I am still reading it. Well, and it’s good. Mr.Clark is helping me to not feel so wretched about my inability to get my thoughts on paper (or computer screen…), apparently it’s a rampant disease within the writing community. I am hopeful that with Mr.Clark’s suggestions, along with the help of my weekly blog assignments, which exist only for the eyes of my dear friend, J.L.Hall, I will be able to conquer this terrible, terrible illness.

Why don’t I start with whyyyy I want to conquer this illness. Why bother, really?

Well, first of all, there’s the whole, “You can do it! You can do it! If you put your mind to it!” thing, that you learn while playing baseball in elementary school gym class. The result of all that nonsense chanted early on is that I feel like I can do it. Secondly, it’s character building to make your self do something that is out of your comfort zone. I went to South America by myself, and now I am going to attempt to write and then let other people read it. Lastly, the essential reason that I want very much to conquer this illness, is because I feel like I should be writing. Like it could be a really good thing.

There’s the why, now where’s the how?

I think this blog is a HUGE first step, even if it is relatively small looking in print. That notion of having someone read what I am writing was simultaneously horrifying and nausea inspiring to me at first, but now I am finding it therapeutic. In Roy Clark’s book, there is a quote from the author, Brenda Ueland, and it goes like this:

“For when you write, if it is to be any good at all, you must feel free – free and not anxious. The only good teachers for you are those friends who love you, who think you are interesting, or very important, or wonderfully funny; whose attitude is: ‘Tell me more. Tell me all you can. I want to understand more about everything you feel and know all the changes inside and out of you. Let more come out.’”


I found this quote inspiring. I also found the statement “no standards,” to be an uplifting concept as well, an idea that Clark discusses in his book. He basically says to write with no standards, and liberate your self. Once you have done this, then you can go back and clean it up and revise it.

I am feeling better about this writing thing.