If You Need To Write

A well known and wonderful book written by a woman nnamed Brenda Ueland in the 1930’s is called, “If You
Want to Write.” Sometimes I think one of my booksn on writing, or the subtitle at least, will be, n“If you need to write.”

Yes, it’s true, many people want to write, and many npeople want to have written…want to be the famous nwriter they’ll be after they write the book of their dreams.

And all that is good. True, honest desire can be an pure fuel for powerful action.

But I know from my experience, and the experience nof many writers I know, as well as many of my nstudents, is that a lot of us write because we need to write.

The following quote expresses something of why this is so:

“For years I have endeavored to calm an impetuous ntide—laboring to make my feelings take an orderly ncourse—it was striving against the stream.”
--Mary Wollstonecraft

How do you know if you really need to write?

Often, it’s a gentle nudge inside yourself. Maybe younhear edges of language in your head. Maybe you nnotice snippets of conversation and jot them down nin some corner of your consciousness. Maybe you nsimply feel out of sorts, out of touch with yourself, nlike a part of you has gotten lost.

Sometimes I can most identify my own need to writenby a certain sense of homesickness, or restlessness nthat I feel. Time after time, when I feel myself to be nlost or wandering, like an orphan in need of a safe nharbor, it all changes when I sit down to write something real.

So, if you sense that you do need to write, how do nyou decide to make the leap, to make writing a priority, namong all the other things on your list?

Well, of course, that is a very personal decision.
It’s between you and your heart, between you and nwhatever sources you call upon for guidance.
I can’t presume to know what’s best for you.

What I can offer, is my knowledge that making a ndecision that you do want to write holds the potentialnto bring up every demon imaginable. So if you find nyourself making a long list of reasons why you really ncan’t write, not now, consider that maybe it’s a voice nin your head that is speaking more from a place of nprotectiveness, than one of true love and trust.

Another quote:
Any original and wholehearted response to life carries nthe capacity to shift the energy of consciousness, and nthe result is transformation of one degree or another.
--Richard Moss

Writing always has the potential to bring about an profound transformation, and some part of your npsyche knows that. While a part of you may long to nwrite, another part of you may fear the journey that nwriting can take you on.

Why all this attention to the need to write?

Because I want you to know about some special nopportunities coming up.

And I have to confess, I completely hate marketing.
It’s true. I spent a year in a heart centered-spirituallynbased marketing class, because I care so deeply about nthis work that I offer, and I wanted to learn a way tonmarket that I could stomach, and I still nhate any kind of selling.

It puts me in a bind, because I have these workshops nthat I know are just incredible,
I know that people’s lives have been changed in the ncourse of them, and all the things that I am supposed nto do to let you know about them are things that I do nnot like to do. It must be some kind of soul growth nopportunity, don’t you think?
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So here I am, being the only thing I know how to be, na writer. As a writer, I know how to tell the truth.
Truth telling and being vulnerable is what writing is all about.
And writing to you, to invite you to attend workshopsnfeels particularly vulnerable to me.

Now I know that some of you aren’t even considering ntaking a writing workshop right now. Some of you can’tneven imagine going to a weekly class, whether it’s i

Amherst, Massachusetts, or via teleclass, or online.

And to consider taking a whole week to travelnall the way to Abiquiu, New Mexico for a retreatnthere feels like taking a trip to the moon.

I accept that as a given.

But some of you might feel differently. Maybe you’ve nhad an experience with writing that changed your world,nand you know you long to touch that place again.
Maybe you’ve never written before but your soul is so nhungry that you have to do something…neven if you’re tired and the laundry isn’t done yet.
You have to take care of this part of you, or somenother part will die.

Or maybe you’re just curious. Maybe you wonder nwhat would happen, if you sat down to the blank page….

So let me tell you a story.

When you come to one of my writing groups, you sitn in a circle. Even if you’re writing on your own, as npart of an online class, you’re part of this circle.
And the whole world, and the universe itself, holds you, nwhen you sit in this circle. The earth itself is part of thencircle, and she gets healed just a little bit, with nevery word you write, and so do you.
At the center of this circle, is you.
Your own soul. Your own heart. Your own life.

And the center of that circle is where you find what it meansn to pray, with words, for all that you hope for, all that you ndream of, and also for all that you’ve lost, and mou
for.
Everything, all that matters, is part of your writing.
And the gift is, all that you never knew you had in you, nstarts to come out.

It happens when you take the action of putting your npen to the page. Or fingers to a keyboard.
Your life starts to change.

Listen deeply to yourself. Do you need to write, right now?
If so, what is stopping you? What would it take to ngive yourself the time and space you really need?

I leave you with the words of poet William Carlos Williams, ntalking about his own experience with the healing npower of writing:

“That’s the way writing often starts,na disaster or a catastrophe of some sort,nas happened to me….And I think that’s the basisnfor my continued interest in writing, becausenby writing I rescue myself under all sorts ofnconditions, whatever it may be that has upset me,nthe
I can write and it relieves the feeling of distress.”

Listen to your heart. Feed your soul. Read a poemnthis week, then read it again, out loud.