Motivation For Writers

“With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

This is written for all of you who have a book inside of you begging to be set free. This is for all of you who have dreamed about writing but never allowed yourself the freedom to do so. This is for all of you who have a story to tell but lack the confidence to tell it. I only have one question for all of you.

Allow me to tell you a little about myself. I am sixty-four years old and I am a writer. I know I am a writer because I write. I have a passion for writing and I have a never-ending thirst and hunger for writing. I do not need accolades to continue my writing for in fact I have few of those. I could cover my walls with rejection slips from agents and publishers, so I obviously do not need affirmation to continue writing. I have received very little money from writing, so I obviously do not need rewards to continue writing.

I write because writing feeds my heart and soul. I write because I cannot imagine not writing, and when the day comes when I can write no longer, I do not want to look back over the landscape of my life and regret not finishing that last story that was in me, screaming to be unchained and released.

So what is your excuse?

It has been a fascinating experience being a part of the HubPages community. I have had the opportunity to meet and form friendships with some remarkable writers who also happen to be remarkable human beings. Many of them have the same hunger for writing that I have.

Some, however, have expressed in their comments that they have visions of writing a book, but they just haven’t done it yet for a variety of reasons. Some lack confidence. Some have been told they are no good at writing, and some have received very little in the way of positive affirmation. Yes, there are even those who are too lazy to proceed, and there are some who lack the organizational skills necessary to take writing seriously.

The reality of it all is that those are all excuses. They may be based on some validity, but they are still excuses that can be overcome.

I have heard that often during my lifetime. We all have a book inside of us. I believe that statement to be true, because I think we are all interesting and complicated beings with our own unique set of experiences that could be told in some form. If not a book then certainly a set of stories, and those stories are waiting to be told. Will anyone find them interesting? I have no idea, but that really isn’t the point now is it? The point is that if you feel a desire to tell your story through writing then you really should tell your story. Nobody else can tell your story. You are unique, the only one of you ever created, and as such you are a priceless fountain of life that has never been experienced. Who better to tell your story than you, the one who lived it?

So I ask you again….what are you waiting for?

I had a neighbor who lived next door to us when I was a kid. He and his wife would have me over for cookies and milk when they saw me playing outside, and during those impromptu snacks I would hear about their lives. They had come to Washington in a covered wagon on the Oregon Trail, and the stories they had about wild Indians and herds of bison a million strong were fascinating to me as a child and are still fascinating to me as an adult fifty years later. Other than telling their story to me, I don’t think they ever shared it with others. I wrote about their lives in a short story called Sam’s Legacy because I believed that their story was important and it should be heard.

So, too, should your story be heard, and so I ask you again….

What are you waiting for?

Think about that for a second. What a marvelous statement regarding what we do as writers. Through our words we create beauty. Through our words we create entertainment and through our words we educate and motivate. We have the power to lift up those who are dejected and lacking in hope, and we have the power to manufacture a world that has never been seen before. Seriously, how cool is that?

“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.”
Norman Vincent Peale

Good old Norman! He speaks the truth you know. I know a few writers on HubPages who do not believe in their abilities and I find it sad. I have read their works and they have talent, but they are lacking the fundamental belief that they are good enough to be a writer, and so their works become fewer and fewer and eventually we lose them and their dream dies. Yes, I find that sad.

I am going to make a statement right now that will have some people shaking their heads. I preface this by saying that I have been reading since I was what, five years old or younger? I have no idea how many books I have read, but it is easily in the thousands. I have read the Masters, the Hemingways and the Steinbecks, and I have read the non-Masters, those who churn out books that have very little redeeming value.

My statement is this: other than the Masters, those rare human beings who have abilities you and I can only dream about, there is very little difference between many of the published authors and the hundreds of thousands of unpublished authors.

I recently read a novel written by Michael A. Black, an author I had never heard of. It was his first novel and it was titled A Final Judgment. I have to tell you folks, it was pig dung. I see better writing on HubPages daily, and I am not exaggerating at all. I kept reading the book thinking that he would improve with time, but he didn’t. I was shocked that he had found a publisher, and I was even more shocked that he had four other novels published by the same publisher. What in holy hell was the publisher thinking?

My only conclusion is that Mr. Black was in the right place at the right time, a perfect convergence of time and place that resulted in his sophomoric efforts being published.

After my initial anger and shock I realized that if it can happen to Mr. Black it sure as hell could happen to me. Now Mr. Black is my writing hero. He stands for everything I believe in, most notably that we all have a story to tell and we all have unlimited possibilities that are waiting for us.

The only thing that remains to happen is for us to do the work and write.

What are you waiting for? Remember, please, that there is no guarantee that tomorrow will get here for you. Unless you are related to the Man of Steel, you could be gone tomorrow and with you your story. People who think they are guaranteed tomorrow really should be writing fiction or fantasy, don’t you think?

I don’t want to hear any more excuses. I don’t want to hear about self-doubt or lack of support at home. I don’t want to hear the thousands of other reasons why you can’t do it. Just tell me how you are going to do it and when you are starting.

I’ll tell you the truth now, and I hope I don’t insult anyone. If you want to be a writer, and if you have always dreamed of writing a book, then I think it is selfish of you not to do so. We live in a world where ugliness surrounds us daily. It seeps into our daily lives and it threatens from time to time to override all the good that is in lives. How can you deny others the chance to read the creation that is inside of you, and thereby share some beauty? You have the ability to write words that will lift others up when they need it the most. You have the ability, through your words, to spread laughter, to spread wisdom and to spread empathy and compassion.

How can you deny others the chance to read your creation?

What the hell are you waiting for?

2013 William D. Holland (aka billybuc)