We're wrapping up our week on the general topic of writing. There have been several requests to make a short e-book about what we've taught this week and I am not opposed—so, TBA on that front.

If you don't care much about "writing," thanks for slugging it out this week. We'll switch up the theme going forward this week. That being said...

When you are a writer, you cannot separate your writing from your life. Writers cannot not write, so writing tends to be like breathing. It is so natural that they don’t even think about it.

It is a shame, however, that many writers don’t prioritize their writing. They’ll allot it status anywhere from “special time” to the last thing on their to-do list. Yet, writing should be their “life.”

But it’s often not their life. A lot of people who want to be writers tend to forget: The principles of life are also the principles of—or the truth about—the writing life.

With that in mind, I recently read an article—frankly, a lame one about a fellow’s “spiritual journey”—where the writer quoted from his high school drama teacher.

Shockingly, as it turned out, this drama teacher was a wise man. How so? Every semester, he taught his theatre kids the following:

The Truth About Life

1. Leave your personal problems at the stage door.

2. Treat the material with honesty, dignity, and without embellishment.

3. Show up fully no matter how many people are in the audience.

So, I started thinking (I know, dangerous, but bear with me): The Truth About Life is the same as The Truth About the Writing Life. Many of us forget these simple things. We forget them as often in our everyday lives as we do in our writing endeavors.

As a reminder, then, for all the writers out there, consider The Truth About (the Writing) Life:

1.    Leave your personal problems at the stage door.

When you are writing, it is not about you!

What? Not about me? Well, then, who is it about?

It’s about your view of the world, your take on things, how the world appears through your unique lens. And yes, you should write from your own experience, or at the very least, write about something you care about. But that’s where it ends.

While you may write from a place within yourself, or if you channel something from the “depths of your unconscious,” you are still doing it with one very important proviso: You are disengaging your ego yet still writing from somewhere deep inside you.

Get out of your ego. Get into the soul or spirit of your characters.

You are a writer. You are there to serve the story. It’s not there to serve you.

One idea that somebody gave me long ago is to have something like an imaginary hat stand, coat rack, or even a cardboard box outside the door of the room where you write. Every time you enter the room, mentally drop all your baggage, your problems, concerns about ego, and any other personal issues into the box (or hang them on the racks) and walk into the room unencumbered.

Then, while you are writing, imagine that someone or something comes and whisks all your baggage, problems and issues away, so that when you’re finished, the doorstep is empty.

(It’s a technique.)

2.    Treat the material honestly, with dignity, and without embellishment.

When you are writing, you collaborate with a force larger than yourself. Disbelieve that at your own peril.

Whether you recognize that force as God or simply your “Higher Self,” when you enter the creative imagination you are only one element of many that go into making up the totality of your story.

So, when you write, treat your material with honesty, dignity, and do not embellish. Let it flow through you honorably.

Don’t try and change it at this point. Just let it flow. Get it down on the page, and if there are changes that need to be made, address them in the rewriting and editing processes.

Dignify the material with your time and your skills, and for crying out loud, don’t embellish. There is nothing worse than a brilliant story and great prose that gets asphyxiated by an attempt at literary high-mindedness.

If a character gets hit in the head, tell us he gets hit in the head. Don’t tell us that a large object projected itself into his cranium.

Be blunt. Use simple language. Study, and you will find that the great writers do these things.

“Tell it like it is,” as the great American man of letters, Dr. Phil, advises.

Revisit some of your own writing and see where you are guilty of embellishment. If you are writing a novel, for instance, the beauty and complexity of the great books come from the story, the narrative, the rich tapestry of characters and their relationships, not from using lots of big words.

3.    Show up fully no matter how many people are in the audience.

Write for the sheer joy of it. Write for the pleasure, the beauty, peace, and satisfaction it stirs in you.

Write because you must. Write because you can’t not write. Write because there’s a story that’s bursting to get out of you.

Don’t write to please editors, publishers, readers, your mother, teacher, or your spouse. Write for the abundance it brings into your life. Turn up at the blank page (or screen) and write—just for the heck of it.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re the only one who’ll read your words or whether you have a print run of a million books ready to roll when you finish your manuscript. What matters is that you show up at the page, every day.

Because writing, in and of itself, is all that matters. Isn’t it?

So next time you’re sitting at your page and thinking “What am I doing here?” go ahead and examine these three truths about (the writing) life and remember how simple it really is.

You write because you can’t not write. So, leave your personal problems at the door, treat the material with honesty, dignity, and without embellishment and show up at the page, no matter how many people are in the audience.

And watch your writing improve.

As always,

Brian

P.S.  – We released our latest e-book a few days back. It is called Passion to Profit: Turning your passion into a profitable side hustle.

I set it up where you can name your own price. So, get it for free if you so choose. Suggested retail is $17.99 and there’s a suggested minimum price of $8, but you can still get it for nuthin'.

Fair warning: Most people never read free e-books, or at least don't take what is inside them all too seriously. Thus, most consumers of free e-books never act on any of the information. They have libraries worth of material sitting on their computer, smartphone, or Kindle collecting virtual dust.

Survey says: when you pay for information, you're much more likely to use it—or at the very least, consider what’s inside.

Now, we also have a free bonus offer at the end of the book that can only be redeemed with a receipt if you buy the e-book for at least the minimum purchase price of $8. It happens to be a "spicy" deal.

[This deal is only going to be as sweet and spicy as it is for a few more hours—until I “re-publish” the e-book. Caveat emptor. When I went to mail out the bonus offers this weekend, I got absolutely killed on the shipping costs and am currently losing money on the whole deal. So, thanks to those of you who hopped on the deal early and revealed my previous lack of attention to a quite significant input cost.]

You can still freely steal 😉 Passion to Profit (or work me over for a “free gift”). It’s the one, and hopefully only, time where I’ll be proud that people are taking advantage of me.

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