We All Have a Story: Getting Started

"The one thing you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can." ~HPLYRIKZ.com

People frequently ask me for tips about writing a novel, expressing interest in how to write their own. Most have a story they wish to tell, and for some that story is an ache pushing against them from the inside, desperate to get out (...usually stemming from a great trauma they've survived). Since I'm asked about this so often, I thought I'd spend this week talking about writing and offering my best advice for those of you who wish to write your own story and don't know how to get started. As an English teacher for nine years, I helped many struggling writers to find their voice. As a writer, being able to tell my own story has been the most healing experience of my life. If I can help any of you do the same, that's frosting on the cupcake for me!

You don't have to have aspirations of becoming a writer to enjoy doing it, or find healing for yourself in the process. In fact, you don't even have to use words! Some people get the same benefits by doodling or sketching, using images to express ideas and feelings that their words cannot. With that in mind, my first and best piece of advice is this; buy a notebook or hardbound blank book (I use a combination of the two, depending on what I'm writing in it) and begin journaling. I have two fast and hard rules for journaling: 1.) Put pen to paper and write whatever thoughts come to mind--no holding back and no censoring yourself; 2.) Never, ever edit your journal entries! Use them to inspire other pieces if you wish, but the original journal should be an utterly free-writing experience. What I write in my journals doesn't even make sense half the time but that's okay because it is always raw and real, which is the point.

Often when I'm filled with deep or strong emotions, I can go on for many pages, my thoughts coming in rapid fire bursts. My true voice, however, comes through the strongest when I'm over-tired. That 2 a.m. voice? That is when I fully get to meet the authentic me, the woman very few people know. Maybe you'll discover the same about yourself, or come to your own voice in an entirely different way. It doesn't matter how you get there, as long as in the end you find it. Authentic voice is the most vital part of you and your writing. You need to know it like a master and then find ways to share it with your audience, even if that's just an audience of one. How do you start? Pour out the words using whatever medium taps into those quiet spaces where you hide inside yourself. Pour the words out even if you're afraid, hands shaking, the pen strokes mere scribbles. Write often and then go back and dig through your work. It is there that you'll find YOU. Once that happens, being able to express what you wish becomes much easier.