I know a writer who chooses stories
as his writing style.
I work with him everyday. And he challenges me to write engaging, relevant stories for myself and those who hire me to write for them. When I think I don’t have anything to say, he tells me I’m trying too hard to SAY something”when I should be diligently writing to SHOW something. He tells me my writing style will suffer if I don’t.
“But you don’t understand,”I respond. “Everything has already been said a million times over!”
“Not exactly the way you can say it,”he calmly replies.
“Oh shut up,”I think to myself. (in case you didn’t realize, it was a conversation with myself)
But then I just smile and get my hands back on my Macbook keyboard and start typing. In fact, that’s how each of these letters and words appeared here in this story I’m sharing with you right now.
Even a professional writer sometimes needs a nudge in the creative direction.
There are those times when the left-brain logical writer makes an incorrect deduction about the wants, needs, and desires of his readers. This causes him to pause for too long and stifle his “flow.”
hen the so-called logic becomes more and more inflexible and cautious. And the flow becomes a trickle and the trickle fades away.
Then the older, wiser writer reminds me”
“Use the trick I showed you to jump-start that flow again. Take a news article, or series of facts, or some other basic information and weave it into a creative story with energy, optimism, and hope. In a world where those three things are increasingly scarce (is that an oxymoron?) it’s important to inject them into the veins of public consciousness. It’s like getting a big whiff of peppermint or lemon scents. They just pick you up and keep you going.”
I’ve been using writing tactics like this for decades now.
And I believe it’s at least part of my writing style. I believe, if you could read through my thousands and thousands of writings through the years, you’d see a style develop. It wasn’t a conscious effort to create the style. I think it developed through a natural progression of my own thoughts spilling onto paper and computer screens. Your writing style probably did (or is doing) the same thing. Let it happen. Keep your pen to paper, or your fingers to the keys, or your voice to the recording device and let those stories flow. And one day a voice inside you will tell you to relax and quit trying so hard. That’s the voice of experience.
Now…go grab some lemon oil and honey”or a nice piece of peppermint”and let the words out into the green pastures of productivity. It’s awesome to watch them dance and jump and live. Ready to give it a try?
Maybe you don’t know me well enough to buy something from me, yet. Ok, then get to know more about me and my worldview. Join the growing body of believers who’ve signed up for the FunderFlash Journal. And enjoy my daily flashes of light from the power of God’s love.
Stay tuned…
