On The Beach

There are number of things I love to do, chief among them writing. When I say I love doing something, I mean I love how I feel while I’m doing it – or, I should say, I love how I usually feel while I’m doing it. The truth is, there is not one thing I have ever done that I have thoroughly enjoyed every single time I’ve done it. This would be a niggling distinction except that whenever I forget it, I accidentally set myself on a course toward despair and hopelessness.

I’m reminded of a student who once told me he knew he’d be able to write more often if he just had a little house on a beach. He described for the class how calm he felt when he looked out on the ocean, when he was away from the city’s hurly-burly, and smelled the saltwater and heard the steady hush of the surf. If he could have that, he’d have the peace of mind necessary to tell his story.

I pointed out to him that he clearly had access to that house already. After all, you can’t describe something as vividly as he described that setting to us unless you can summon it in your mind. I can’t describe a dragon until I see it clearly in my imagination, until I feel the beating of its wings and hear the crunch of its scales as it unwinds its tail. Everything we write is given to us first. Our job is only to translate it so that someone else can see it. Which is just what that student did. He needed only turn his attention to where the peace of mind he sought actually existed, and he was as good as on the beach.

The moment I believe that how I feel, which is all I ever actually care about, is caused by what I do or where I am or what I have, it’s inevitable that I’ll find myself yearning for that which will bring me joy. Now what I want exists outside of me, and I am poorer for it. The pleasure and satisfaction I have known from all my friendships and conversations and creations was always the consequence of my thoughts and actions aligning with my truest self, an inner artist who is rich with stories to be told.

Check out Fearless Writing with Bill Kenower on YouTube or your favorite podcast app.

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