True Stories

I was teaching Fearless Writing at a conference this past weekend. If you’re unfamiliar, like the book, this is not a class that focuses on the craft of writing but on the many emotional challenges we face when we sit down and face a blank page. Writers tell themselves a lot of stories about why they procrastinate and why nothing is coming and why they have no time to write and what people will think of what they’ve written. Most of these stories only make writing harder, and yet we tell them anyway because we don’t recognize them as stories; we just think they’re the truth.

So, in my class I tell the students different, friendlier stories about why it’s sometimes hard to write and why we don’t find the time to write and so on. That’s really all I do: tell stories. Of course, I only tell my students true stories. How do I know they’re true? There are many reasons, but the only one that matters is how I feel when I tell them, which is the only way I ever want to feel. I have never been able to lie my way to that feeling.

I was thinking of this at the end of the class when a young woman stood up, stretched, and said, “Now I just want to go write!” Mission accomplished, I thought. If she walked away with nothing else, I hoped she walked away remembering that renewed enthusiasm, seeing writing as something to look forward to rather than an obstacle course of mysterious doubt that might or might not lead to a happy destination. But I also hoped she didn’t attribute this feeling entirely to me.

My stories didn’t give her anything she didn’t already have. No story can. All a story can do is point to something the reader or the audience may have forgotten or disregarded. That awakened joy, enthusiasm, or contentment may feel new, but it’s as old ourselves. It’s love, and it’s older still than any of us, the light toward which the flower of every life must inevitably bend.

If you like the ideas and perspectives expressed here, feel free to contact me about individual coaching and group workshops.

Fearless Writing: How to Create Boldly and Write With Confidence.
You can find William at: williamkenower.com