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© 2015 – Veronica Marie Lewis-Shaw
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“Nobody
sees the world the way you do.” – Nicole Baart
That is probably a writer’s greatest truth. Or at least right up there near the top of
the truth list. I like what writer and
author, Nicole Baart says in her blog about how each of us brings our own perspective to
the world - As You See It - Nicole Baart | Author. We do… we all have stories to tell and each
one of us brings with our stories the colorings and shadings of our own unique perspective
on and of the world.
So why then are we often hesitant to share? Why do we think our story isn’t “good
enough”?
This isn’t something that
plagues only the debut writer; accomplished and much-published authors suffer
the same ‘affliction’ on occasion. Once
we accept our ‘uniqueness’ and what that can bring to a story, we should want,
as Nicole wrote, to “shout it from the rooftops!”.
I think it is often more than just a belief that our
story isn’t ‘good enough’.
I believe for many of us, it is the sudden and certain knowledge that we are revealing more of ourselves than we are comfortable with. Writers, like actors, musicians and other
artists, have a fairly healthy, if slightly-inflated, ego and a desire to be
seen and heard… to share our craft… our vision of a part of the world that has
captured our attention.
But are we ready to share a part of our soul? A glimpse inside of us that we have, until
now, revealed only to a lover? Are we
ready to reveal, even obliquely, a dark part of our past that until now we’ve
kept hidden away in an old wooden cigar box way back in the corner of a seldom used
closet, up on the top shelf under a pile of out of fashion cardigans?
As adults, there is an intimacy in our writing that is sometimes not as easily shared as when we regaled our fifth grade class with
stories of our family camping trip in the Tetons.
And that gives us pause.
As it should.
Reflection isn’t just what one sees in a mirror or the
still water of a cold mountain lake before the sun rises too high and turns the
vibrant colors of morning to midday pastels.
It reminds us why we write. Why we took up this craft that has the
potential for fame or infamy… for wealth or penury… for celebrity or solitude.
There are probably as many reasons why we write as there
are stars in the sky. Each of us has our
own particular reason or reasons. For
some it is to share the blessings in and of their lives. For others, writing is a penance… a tether to a
past that won’t let go.
Writing is our raison
d'etre.
We write to be remembered.
We write to be remembered for our stories.
Our stories may have bits and bits of ourselves, our
past and our present, but the stories themselves are not about us. They are stories of a female police detective
with a past… a New York City private eye bringing his own justice to an unjust
world… a young woman who finds her own
grace through the ones that love her unconditionally.
Hmm... I seem to have drifted a bit from the topic at hand. Let me close with this...
We will always see ourselves as less ‘interesting’ than others see us.
And a little humility is not a bad thing for a writer.
It helps keep things in perspective.
~
© 2015 – Veronica Marie Lewis-Shaw
(writing under a large mushroom somewhere in the Pacific Northwest)
