Why We Share

I recently posted an article on my personal blog titled Don't Wait concerning the importance of early testing and detection when it comes to colon cancer. I received quite a bit of public and private feedback which led to some soul searching on my part. I'm sure the answer to this question is different for each of us, but let's talk about it for a bit. Let's talk about why we share our stories, our lives, our dreams our thoughts, our views, and our opinions through our writing. What's the motivation behind all the sharing?

Whether sharing through a blog, a poetry reading, a memoir, a contest submission, etc... (and the list is quite lengthy), there are those of us who use our writing to share things with others each and every single day. We all travel different paths, live in different places, and have our own unique stories to tell. I'm hoping you'll leave a comment on this post telling me your motivation and reason for sharing, because I'm genuinely curious. I think sometimes people's perception of why we share is completely the opposite of our reality.

They think we do it to stand in the spotlight.
Here's our reality: Even as a little girl, I wanted to share my stories. Our neighborhood group put together a newspaper that we distributed for free to anyone who wanted a copy. Keep in mind this was well before computers, and each edition was hand written by a group of elementary school students. Our motivation was never to make money or become famous and I guess we didn't stop to think "no one is going to be interested in reading this, so why bother?". I think most of us share with the intention of helping others - we hope that our pain, our struggle, and our laughter is going to positively impact others.

They think we do it for the money.
In reality, most authors don't make a lot of money. Most write during their free moments and still have another job to pay the bills. We write because we cannot imagine life without writing - just like most people can't live without air, we cannot live without words.

What are some other reasons people think you share your passion for writing? Is that perception accurate? What's your real motivation?

I love being engaged in conversation about my writing and hope it will inspire others to share their stories. Everyone is a teacher and we can learn and grow through their stories and experiences. No matter what your motivation or what people may think motivates you - just keep writing and please keep sharing!

Hugs,
~Crystal

Crystal is a secretary, council secretary, financial secretary, and musician at her church, birth mother, Auntie, babywearing mama, business owner, active journaler, writer and blogger, Blog Tour Manager with WOW! Women on Writing, Press Corp teammate for the DairyGirl Network, Unicorn Mom Ambassador, as well as a dairy farmer. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and their five youngest children, two dogs, four little piggies, a handful of cats and kittens, horses Darlin' and Joker, and over 250 Holsteins.

You can find Crystal milking cows and riding unicorns (not at the same time), taking the ordinary and giving it a little extra (making it extraordinary), blogging and reviewing books here, and at her personal blog - Crystal is dedicated to turning life's lemons into lemonade!

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2 comments memoir, personal story, real life writing, why we share, why we write, writing about life

Getting Personal, Really Personal

I'm reading some writing which has made me re-consider my own writing about personal issues and how to deliver my feelings to my own readers.

Often a writer is trying to get at a personal truth and hopes and dreams and wonderment. But what is left on the page is one dimensional. The in-depth soul searching is left in the writer's soul or journal. When a writer most believes she is over-reaching, in truth, she is barely reaching out.

Often, as writers, we may take a shortcut. We tell our feelings, but we don't layer them using descriptions that deepen our readers' understanding of who we are.

As with fiction, self-help and personal nonfiction benefits from additional color and description.

We assume our readers will understand what we're saying by just writing "I felt bad." But we leave out the richness and three-dimensional element of ourselves. "I felt so bad that my heart sped up and my stomach churned" or "I felt so bad it felt as if my blood drained from my face and I ran from the room." While these are basic examples, I think it provides a difference that readers can more closely engage with the feelings the author is having and gives the bad feelings a bit more scale. Maybe even accessing an earlier scene that can bring more depth to the scene at hand.

But as writers, as our draft comes to completion, we shouldn't stop there.

We've all done it--given our writing to someone who understands us or who, at least, knows of our desire to be published. We hand over our writing to someone in our writers' group or someone who has read the previous six drafts. Those someones know or can easily interpret our "shortcut" to our emotions. They often understand the scale when we write "I felt bad."

I suggest that those writing about personal struggles and emotions find a reader not accustomed to the shortcuts. Find someone with a gentle yet critical eye who can find the areas of one-dimension. The areas where the writer is not serving the reader.

Why would this be as important to a writer than finding a reader or editor to ensure that the grammar is correct?

This reader is important in helping find where the writer fails to connect--in depth--with the reader. A reader shouldn't be left at the end of a chapter wondering why read more? Or with the worst question, "So what? Why should I care?" When a writer writing about personal issues fails to connect with the reader--leaving the reader with more questions than answers--the writing may be interesting, but it has delivered a one-dimensional character instead of a full-formed, layered journey of self-discovery.

What reading have you done lately that has changed the way you view your writing or revision process?

Elizabeth King Humphrey is a writer and editor living along the North Carolina coast.

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4 comments Elizabeth King Humphrey, personal memoir, personal story, writing for your reader

Expressing Yourself On a Day Like Today

When I signed on Facebook this morning, there were so many posts about 9/11 that it got me thinking about today's Muffin post. There is such a need to express ourselves--writers and non-writers--on a day like today whether it's through tweets, Facebook status updates, blog posts, poems, letters, speeches, stories, or essays. The written word, coming from the heart, is everywhere; and it's asking us where we were when we heard the news about the twin towers, or how do we feel about ways people are currently trying to express themselves, or most importantly, to remember our soldiers , who are bravely fighting against terrorism. Has September 11th been a topic of your writing? Have you been able to get your strong emotions onto paper or the computer screen? In what form?

I've written about this subject in the form of poetry and an essay, and I've been lucky enough to have all three of my pieces published. I think it comes from the emotion behind my words, and my connection to the subject--9/11 affected me, and it comes out in my writing.

Some writers have a hard time writing about emotional issues or subjects that touch them deeply. It's difficult to step back and get the words on the page. But if you feel the need and the words are ready to spill out of you--on any subject 9/11, divorce, grief--then just do it. Get the words out, get them on paper, and then go back and revise when you're not so close to the subject matter. Don't worry if it's the same thing that everyone else has already written about--that's not what's important about expressing yourself about an emotional topic. What's important is you at this point. Later, you can revisit the piece and see if there's something for a reader in there--some universal point that everyone can learn from or share with you. If not, it's still important to express yourself--you can even post it on your Facebook page for your friends and family to see if nothing else.

Have you written about 9/11, the war in Iraq, or the recent controversy in the news over Ground Zero plans? Was it easy or difficult for you? What did you do with the piece you wrote? Stick it in a drawer? Share it with friends and family? Or get it published?

None of those answers really matter, although I would love for you to share your experiences with us. What matters is that you were able to express yourself on a day like today. . .and it came from your heart.

post by Margo L. Dill, http://margodill.com/blog/

**About the photo: This photo by Bernt Rostad was found on www.flickr.com. It was taken on April 1, 2010 and Bernt has this to say: "Currently, heavy construction is going on to construct a 9/11 Memorial and the new One World Trade Center building."

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3 comments Margo L. Dill, personal story, writing inspiration

Freewriting: What Happened To My Passion?

Have you ever felt the need to listen to a particular song and find yourself scouring YouTube.com? You locate the video and remember exactly what it meant to you--where you were, what you were doing, and why it's still important, or should be--and afterward, you notice those little links that pop up recommending you to view other related videos. Sometimes they're by the same artist, sometimes they're merely similar, but before you realize it, you're following a trail of breadcrumbs and looking up old favorites from decades ago.

That just happened to me.

I started looking up Kate Bush songs, then progressed to Peter Gabriel, and that led to the 1986 Amnesty International Concert, "Conspiracy of Hope." I worked for Amnesty at that concert as a volunteer and passed out flyers. I was fourteen-years-old. After my duties were finished, my friends and I crept up to the fourth row and enjoyed face-time with the performances of Peter Gabriel, U2, Sting/The Police, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Lou Reed, Miles Davis, Madonna, Sean Penn and Bob Geldof. Funny thing is, I'd almost completely forgotten about the concert until I saw the related link on YouTube. How could I forget something as important as that? After all, my friends and I started the Amnesty International club at our high school, and if I'm not mistaken, it still remains today.

When I was fourteen, the issues pertaining to human rights were extremely important to me. I wrote poems, stories, performed spoken word about Steven Biko for my speech class, and painted to serve the cause. After years of moving around, I've lost those paintings. But as I viewed the concert on YouTube, I remembered each one of them vividly. I painted abstract figures wrapped in barbwire, trees engulfing buildings, and black lines of imprisoned figures holding flowers between steel bars. Those paintings either went into a dumpster when my father's house sold, or are hanging on a free spirit's wall somewhere. The latter makes me smile.

The thing is, as I got older and "busier" I forgot about my passions as a teen. Is this something that happens to everyone? Do we simply evolve, or in my case, "devolve," and forget about the things that really stirred us in our youth?

I'm happy I checked my insecurities at the gate when I entered my thirties, but what about those things that instilled a sense of passion and place in my teens? What happened to the young activist? Did she meet an early demise by the hand of her family and daily duties? I sincerely hope not.

Yeah, we grow up and have different mindsets. It's for the better, I'm sure. But somehow, we seem to relinquish the fresh perspective that can be such a gripping tool to the writer. Lately, I've been looking back at my writing and wonder if I've de-gressed. I know what the cure is, and I've been ignoring it. It's simple. It's organic. It's non-edited, non-structured, and nonsensical. It's freewriting.

Freewriting allows us to let go.

If you haven't freewritten in a while because of obligations, responsibilities, or the need to make every word count because you're a freelancer, take a moment and rediscover the art of letting your words flow recklessly and carelessly onto paper. Embrace every thought.

This post is a freewrite. I had no idea where it would go. I started with one idea and hoped that I would find a resolve. I think I did, and maybe next time, I will find my passion.

Freewriting Exercise:

• Start with a blank page and type one topic idea at the top.
• Set a timer for ten minutes. You really don't want to do it for any longer than that because freewriting is a warm up for more focused writing.
• Begin to type anything that comes into your head. Don't stop until the time is up.
• When you are done, see what you've written and pull any ideas or phrases that you can use later.

Think about it: if you have ten minutes to spare, you may be able to get back your passion.

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3 comments amnesty international, freewriting, passion, personal story, writing inspiration, youtube