Fiction Scribe

Would you believe we’ve already been discussing this book for about three months already? Wow! Welcome to another discussion.

Last week we finished up part three by talking about Letters and Writer’s Block. This week we start part four: Publication – and Other Reasons to Write. We’ll be starting with Writing a Present and Finding Your Voice.

Some of us write purely for the pleasure. Some of us to be heard. And some – or maybe there’s a little bit of it in each of us – write for immortality.

I love this chapter because it not only touches on Lamott’s efforts to turn bad situations into something more than just bad situations, but it also touches on the basic human wish to influence something. To be remembered in some way.

That’s why writing makes a great present to anyone. To know you’ll be remembered and for people who are left behind will have something to remember you by. I write to my daughter sometimes and she’s not even in existence yet. But I want her to know, even after I’m gone, that I was thinking of her long before she arrived.

This is a lovely, lovely chapter.

While I don’t think finding your voice is always the most difficult thing for an author to do, I’m still very glad Lamott wrote this chapter. I think a lot of people who write fanfiction (no insult intended) should read this chapter. It could give them a bit more push to start writing their own stories.

I think one of the best pieces of advice this chapter gives is: “Write as if your parents are dead.� Taken out of context, that sounds a bit horrid, but in context it makes good and perfect sense. When we’re writing, we have plenty of voices telling us what not to do and what’s not proper. If we could all write (the first draft, at least) as if there is no one close to us who is going to judge us, I think we would be taking a step in the right direction.

This chapter is another excellent one in that it reminds us our own experiences (good and bad) will be what fuels our writing with the most truth.

What did you think of these two chapters?

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Remember to read Giving and Publication for next week.