Indulgent

For the last ten years I have written about my own life, more or less to the exclusion of all other subjects. Even the book I have coming out in May of this year (Fearless Writing), which could be best described as a spiritual self-help book for writers, is based largely on my own experiences, whether as a writer or a teacher or an interviewer of writers. When I tell people what I write about, they will sometimes comment, “You must have a very interesting life.” I do not. I have had very few adventures in my life. I rarely travel, I’ve been married to the same woman for almost twenty-five years, and I worked at the same restaurant for seventeen. In fact, if viewed from a certain distance, it might appear I have strategically planned my life to avoid making it worthy of writing about. This is not actually possible. It is not adventures, or trauma, or heroism that makes a life worth writing about; it is life itself, which is all I have ever been interested in.

In this way, you might call my writing indulgent. For the last ten years I have indulged my interest in what it is to be alive and human and getting about in a world filled with other humans. My own experiences remain my most intimate exposure to that subject. Yet my ultimate goal as an author is to connect with other people, to find those universal threads that connect us all. If I were to really write only about myself, I don’t think that connection would be possible.

What continues to move me, ten years into this journey, is the understanding that the quickest route to another person’s heart is through my own. The deeper into my own experiences I dive, the further I go beneath the surface of time and place and circumstance, the more I am able to find those currents flowing endlessly from soul to soul to soul. What I have called my life is just a portal, my personal entry point into the house we all share.

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

Write Within Yourself: An Author's Companion.

"A book to keep nearby whenever your writer's spirit needs feeding." Deb Caletti.

You can find William at: williamkenower.com