Top 5 Reasons to SHARE YOUR WRITING

Friday was my birthday and my health conscious friend, Michelle Tracy took me out to lunch at Nalley Fresh where we both enjoyed the “Healthy Salad” with dressing on the side along with great catch up conversation. You know the type, learning what all one anothers’ friends and relatives are up to along with the status of current projects. She applauded me for continuing with my blog for so many years and asked, “have you ever shared your book writing with anyone?” “Have I?” I feel like sharing my inner self (aka my writing) with others is one of the only ways I can continue moving forward with my currently unpaid version of my work. Here’s why:

5. Motivation. Every time I begin to lose motivation, I tend to take on new projects that were old ways I was successful (remember, I am a career changer and a stay at home mom who is not very used to traditional forms of praise). Recently I became President of my neighborhood association and had to write a newsletter. Although I knew future me might want me working on my book, present me knew that scribing the written goings-ons of my neighborhood may drum up some positivity. And it did! The same is true for my book writing. I only like to share my written word with people who seem to know something about the literary world. And, they always encourage me to keep pushing forward. I think a big part of it is that we have a great idea and everyone knows that excellent writing takes practice.

4. New Perspectives. Once Dianne (my writing partner) and I completed our second draft. We shared it with our writing friend (who actually gets paid a living wage+ to write). Part of our book is structured as a bit of a mystery. We place little tidbits of information in the front part that have more of the story in the back end. This I believe is called a payoff. And when I heard the payoffs she enjoyed reading…and the ones she didn’t even notice, I now know that I need to either maintain existing chapters or spend extra time working on ones that didn’t work. Because, I want them to be noticed.

3. Errors. Blatant errors are easy to miss. When I worked in advertising I had to do a lot of proof reading. A minor misspelling or a typo can compromise the validity of a piece of creative work. I learned the mind, after reading words over and over again, becomes so familiar with the words that it can miss what is wrong. One way I learned to combat that was to read paragraphs backwards. Another way is to have someone read your work.

2. Build Relationships. I cannot live behind a mask and only reveal my true self to my family. Yes, I do share my writing with my husband (who is incredibly literary) and obviously my mother since she is my writing partner. I even share it with my dad. And they all love what I say. But they would love me if I had a third, overly developed nipple. So, I need to make myself vulnerable and share my writing with others. In all the classes and the research I have done, it is critiquing someone else’s work that helps refine the quality of your own. I have done it. Critiqued my friend’s writing. Even after she submitted her final copy for a contest. I risked losing the friendship in hopes of helping her…and myself. But it always seems that those relationships continue and grow stronger. In my experience, they have.

1. Marketing. If I don’t let people read my work. No one knows I’m out here. No matter how hard I try. Regardless of how great I feel reading and writing an all sides of the equation nonfiction story down, like Plato says, it doesn’t exist until it is realized on the other side of the cave.