About these meditations
I’ve been a writer all my life. As such, I’ve spent more years in the company of words than I have with my husband and children.
My relationship with words is unpredictable. We respect each other, yes, but we don’t always enjoy each other’s company. We bicker and fret, accuse each other of being lazy and— cruelest of all — untalented.
But just as we threaten to walk away — for good this time! — we turn back. And we remember.
We remember better, headier days when we sought each other’s company and danced til dawn. When we held each other’s hand and walked through parted waters. We were miraculous. We were in love. And we always will be.
These meditations spring from that love. I offer them to strengthen your relationship with writing. May they bring you comfort and joy and remind you that you, too, can part the waters. You are miraculous.
WriteMeditations™
By Beth Mende Conny
© 1999-2012 Beth Mende Conny. All rights reserved in all media.
The content of WriteMeditations™ may be forwarded in full without special permission, provided it is used for nonprofit purposes and full attribution and copyright notice are given. For other purposes, contact Beth Mende Conny at Beth@WriteDirections.com.
Attribution: © Beth Mende Conny, the founder of WriteDirections.com and the author of more than four dozen books and collections.
Writing is a heartache
The heart truly aches, swells with ideas that don’t seek expression as much as release. The pressure builds with every passing word — the gems of language and insight that we let slip, literally, from our fingers.
And when at last we hold them, mere butterfly wings, our hearts ache again. To be given the chance — indeed, the privilege — to shape and string them into poems and stories is to enter into an agreement not so much with our readers but with ourselves. We agree to let life touch us and let ourselves, like lovers, return the caress.
School of life
Inexperienced as you may be at writing, you are experienced in other, equally important ways. You have attended the School of Life, from which you may even have earned an advanced degree. Who you are, where you’ve been, what you see and think and feel — all matter. Good writing, after all, is good, rich living.
Significant others
When you ask readers to read your book, article, brochure, whatever it may be, you're entering a relationship. It might be casual, intimate, purely professional--but the relationship exists.
You may know what YOU want out of the relationship, but that's not enough. There's got to be something in it for your partner as well.
So take a moment and consider your significant other. What does he or she most want and need from you, the writer?
Miracles
Does writing require discipline? Perhaps. Certainly it fair amount of butt-time, the time we sit in front of a notebook or computer, literally turning our mere thoughts into words on a page or screen.
But the word discipline has such negative connotations. It is something we associate with hard work, as if our creative spirits must be sent to boot camp to work long and hard because, well, that's the way it's done.
But discipline is really no more than paying attention — to creative urges, to a project's flow. It's a recognition that intention, coupled with attention, can bring about all sorts of miracles.
Beth Mende Conny is the founder and president of WriteDirections.com. She has published more than four dozen books and collections, and helps individuals and businesses bring their projects to publication. She can be contacted at Beth@WriteDirections.com.