No Limit

If you want to be a writer, and if you would even like to make a living selling what you’ve written, it is very important that you learn how to tell the kind of stories you most want to tell. It’s important to learn about the nuances of craft as well as learning how to get into that important writing frame of mind whenever you sit at your desk. In other words, the writing, obviously, is very important. 

But the longer I have done this, the more I have come to understand that what I do when I’m not writing is as, if not more, important. And I am not just talking about the writing of query letters or marketing emails or attending writers’ conferences. I mean what you’re thinking when you’re not writing, when you’re going about your day, living in that world over which you do not have the same immediate control that you do with your stories. What do you think about the world that you cannot mold like clay with your thoughts, the world you’re reacting to, serving, caring for? What you think about that world has more to do with the success or failure of what you write in the privacy of your workroom than the quality of that work.

What do you believe is possible for you in this world? Do you believe it is possible to make a living as a writer – you, who probably doesn’t know anyone personally who is doing so? Do you believe there is an audience for your work? Do you believe success only visits the lucky, that it’s the consequence of some divine roulette wheel? Do you believe you can look at your life and ask of it, “What do I want?” in the same way you face a blank page and ask, “What story do I want to tell?” Or do you believe you believe you must ask, “What is possible for me? What is realistic for me?”

Your life is a blank page, a story being written every morning. You have discovered the power of the intersection of desire and imagination when you sit and write, apply that some power to everything you do. Life does not change because you are no longer writing. Let yourself ask, “What do I want?” with no limitation whatsoever other than your own unique desires. What would the answer be if it could be anything? What would your story be if the page were blank right now?

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

Everyone Has What It Takes: A Writer’s Guide to the End of Self-Doubt
You can find William at: williamkenower.com