Big Feelings Writing
My hope is that I won’t be in my Bad Writer Era forever. Yes, I’m embracing it now. And sharing some of the beginning process with you. Which is vulnerable AF.
But, I don’t want to STAY in this era. I want to evolve and expand into a new era eventually. I just don’t know how long I have to be bad before I start to write the way I crave to. 😂 Anyone have that answer?!
A couple of months ago, I was at an Airbnb and picked up a random novel that was in their home library. It had been a while since I’d read fiction and I got pulled in quickly. The next two mornings were consumed with the characters and story telling. I couldn’t leave the weekend without finishing.
I walked inside the A-frame, cuddled up in my partner's lap, and said, “I want to write things that make people feel big things.”
I had been feeling BIG things throughout the entire book. And now, I was feeling the letdown as it came to a close. Nothing about the characters or plot or setting connected to me personally. I wasn’t feeling big things because it tapped into my own stuff. I was feeling big things because the person storytelling was a really good writer.
That’s the kind of writing I want to do.
A couple months later, I listened to a highly suggested celebrity memoir. From a celebrity I didn’t know anything about. I can’t relate to the cost of being a child-star in Hollywood. That’s a pretty far stretch from being raised on a wheat farm in Kansas. And for the most part, I couldn’t relate to anything else she wrote about.
But again, I felt BIG things as I listened to it.
Another hit of inspiration. This is the kind of writing I want to do. And now I see that it can be done within personal memoir. It’s possible to tell your unique and specific story AND connect deeply with people that haven’t lived a life anywhere close to yours.
That’s the kind of writing I want to do.
With Curiosity,
