write what you know ...
One of the benefits of writing in a coffee shop, especially the Penny Coffee House - http://pennycoffeehouse.com/ - is that there is never a shortage of inspiration walking in the door. Endless opportunities to chartacter sketch, snippets of conversation to record and even the chalk dusted menu offers inspirational adjectives.
I truly believe that nurturing your will to write will be fed by what life brings you to write about. Jung aptly described it, as “That which is most personal is most common”. Write what you know, write what is in your life and you will feed your passion for words with your life experiences. When I find I am struggling with writing it is often because I am not personally balancing who I am with what I do.
One of the best writings I continue to enjoy over and over, is Stephen King’s bestseller, On Writing. King sets out to describe the benefits of the writing lifestyle in a simplistic straightforward manner by simply telling us not how he writes but rather how he lives and in that insight in some round-about way he offers endless valuable lessons on how to write. King unknowingly backs up my belief that there is some positive harmony in life and writing. A hundred pages into the book he speaks of his office space, his own desk, about the job and what he came to know:
“It starts with this: put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn’t in the middle of the room. Life isn’t a support system for art. It’s the other way around.” Stephen King
Comments
Good advice
I think that it is good advice to 'write what we know.'
I sit in my coffee shop, The Wired Monk, (coffee shops have wonderful names don't they?)
I need to pee, so I head for the little boy's room, but it is locked. I sigh and return to my seat. Forty minutes later, no one has come out so I figure someone has pulled the door shut behind them. It locks automatically.
I ask Cherí, the owner for the key. I explain why. I am ready to break all proper protocols and use the ladies room. We old guys... we can't hold it like we used to.
I stand in front of the men's room door with the key in the lock. I knock, you know, just in case.
Silence.
It occurs to me that someone might yet be in the bathroom. What if some old guy has a massive heart attack and dies, sitting there?
I turn the key in the lock, and crack open the door, prepared for the worst.
The bathroom is empty. I give a great sigh, enter, and empty my overflowing bladder.
When I hand the key back, I tell Cherí what went through my mind.
"That would make a fantastic story," she says.
So I wrote it. She was right. A perfect coffee shop story, for I can see where it all happens.
'Write what you know.'
Good writing and a fine weekend to you all.
jaw
thanks for sharing.
I loved the book, "On Writing" by STephen King as well. He speaks to you, as if you were right in the room with him. You can see his desk, and feel his muse. Wonderful stuff. Looking to great writers like him, give us inspiration to love what we do, and just do it.
Write what you know, keeps you honest, and your readers know, and feel you.
The way you speak about faith,
brings to mind, what I know and feel. Without faith, what do we really have? ARe we just in some kind of suspended animation, or perhaps we evolved from the apes. I understand why the old school Menonites, hold onto their faith, because it is all we have.
Without faith,
I would really have no hope. No hope for everlasting life? To live and die, in a decade, and that's if your lucky. No faith, no hope, no happiness for me.
Life is a journey, not a destination. There are no promises in this life.
Their journey was tough, I can feel that, from what you write. What doesn't break you, will make you stronger.
In your intense, blue eyes, I see strength, and determination.
Happy to know you.
By the way, I answered that question you asked me, a while back. Just went back to the blog today, and noticed, you had written back.
Blessings!!!
Airlover.