MY WEEKLY<\/p>\n
BLOG<\/p>\n
WHY DO YOU
WANT TO WRITE?<\/p>\n
Writing can be\u00a0a great pleasure or it can seem like an impossible task. It can be rewarding,\u00a0something to anticipate with eagerness, or it can be painful, something to\u00a0dread. Like all forms of art, when you do it, it can make you proud or it can make\u00a0you feel not good enough. I sat down at my computer this morning like I do\u00a0every morning, my cat took her usual place between the screen and the keyboard,\u00a0her furry head hitting the keys and driving me crazy, and I began to think: Why\u00a0are we driven to fill up a blank page with words? What makes a person a good\u00a0writer? A good dancer. A good painter? What makes one person do their art with\u00a0abandon and another person feel blocked and awkward and afraid to press
forward?<\/p>\n
I know both\u00a0of those states of mind. I\u2019ve been writing for a long time and some days, I feel\u00a0inspired and eager to keep on going. Other days, I feel blocked and want to\u00a0quit. But I carry on. For me, it has to do with how I approach my work and how\u00a0much I value my personal expression, no matter what it is or how it sounds on\u00a0any particular day. Even though I\u2019m an editor and writing coach, if I really\u00a0think about it, I don’t believe you can teach someone to write. All you can do\u00a0is encourage them to remove the blocks, the judgments and expectations, take an\u00a0honest look at themselves and put what they see and feel on the page.<\/p>\n
It relieves a\u00a0lot of pressure when there is no good or bad, no right or wrong way to write.\u00a0There is only opening your heart, finding what is there and allowing it to\u00a0shine. It isn\u2019t about technique, the way you turn a phrase, how you use\u00a0punctuation or how many big words you use. What gives writing value is the\u00a0depth of authenticity, how honest you are with yourself and how truthfully you\u00a0express it.<\/p>\n
In 1945,\u00a0legendary modern dance innovator, Martha Graham, famously sent an inspirational\u00a0note to her friend, new choreographer Agnes de Mille. Agnes had said she felt\u00a0like she wasn’t good enough and in essence, Ms. Graham responded with something\u00a0like this. I paraphrase:<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t\u00a0have to determine how good your work is. Or how valuable it is. That is not up\u00a0to you. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to\u00a0just do it because if you block your individual expression, there is only one\u00a0you and it will be lost for all time. You simply have to keep your heart open\u00a0and listen to the urges that motivate you.\u201d<\/p>\n
I take that to\u00a0mean that judging your work as wonderful or terrible is not your job. When\u00a0other people criticize you or your artistic expression, it means nothing. I\u00a0like to think of magnificent impressionist painter, Vincent Van Gogh, who never\u00a0sold a painting in his lifetime, but he kept on painting . . . for painting\u2019s\u00a0sake. In ten years, he did 900 paintings with no encouragement from anyone. He
simply had to unburden his heart and when he looked inside, his paintings were\u00a0there, begging for light and expression.<\/p>\n
As you sit\u00a0down to write, it really doesn\u2019t matter why you’re doing it. All you have to do\u00a0is look inside, feel what is there and courageously put it on the page. No\u00a0matter what it is. When you express yourself truthfully, when you unburden your\u00a0heart, you begin to feel lighter, easier and less confused. When you stop\u00a0judging yourself as an artist and start appreciating yourself, your creativity\u00a0will soar and your heart will become open and filled with hope. And that is a
good enough reason.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MY WEEKLY BLOG WHY DO YOUWANT TO WRITE? Writing can be\u00a0a great pleasure or it can seem like an impossible task. It can be rewarding,\u00a0something to anticipate with eagerness, or it can be painful, something to\u00a0dread. Like all forms of art, when you do it, it can make you proud or it can make\u00a0you feel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}