Writing About Writing

I created this narrative essay for an assignment in the writing class I'm taking at Coursera. Maybe it will be of interest to a few of you.

“There is nothing to writing.  All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”  Variations on this quote have been attributed to many famous authors over the years, including Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe and Red Smith.  The idea that writing requires a hypothetical blood sacrifice appears to be a belief held by many.  In my own experience, writing from the heart often feels like standing naked in front of the room.

Several months ago, I wrote my most read blog post of all time, a post where I shared the struggle I had with trying to offer service with a willing heart.   (read it here)  “I could think of lots of reasons why I shouldn't have to help.  I started thinking of people I knew, who I was "sure" would be more appropriate to help out.”  I shared that ultimately I ended up helping, but that I wasn’t able to maintain the kind attitude I wanted.  I had a difficult time hitting the “publish” button on that post.  Did I want to share that part of myself with the mostly anonymous audience who reads my blog?  I wondered, if writing requires such a willingness of openness, why do reasonable people engage in it?

Earnest Hemingway wrote “All you have to do is write one true sentence.  Write the truest sentence that you know.”  Writing a blog is a vehicle where anyone can write one true sentence after another.  In order to see how my life as a writer compares to other people’s experiences, I searched the Digital Archive ofLiterary Narratives for other writers who express themselves through blogs.  I found three narratives that interested me, “Things I do not know” by May Harriet, ”I am a writer, really?” by Jenni Mantey and “Getting to know you” by Keith Addison.  Each writer discussed how they use a blog to share their life and interests.  May Harriet uses her blog to write about running.  Keith Addison writes about life with a child with a rare genetic disability.  Jenni Mantey uses her blog to share the day to day happenings in her life.  Like these writers, I maintain a blog where I share the things my family does as well as write about some of the challenges that come with raising six children, one of whom has special needs. 

Writing a blog is time consuming.  Trying to decide what to share and how to write in such a way that the reader is interested and engaged takes time, something each of us thinks we don’t have enough of.  Why then do people write blogs?  English is a second language for Jenni Mantey.  She writes of her experience with writing assignments, “For the most part, my writings were rather duties as if I had no choice but must write, therefore, I did not enjoy writing.”  Later in her essay, she says that through her blog, “By taking time, writing my ideas, and reading my own stories on the web, I have been feeling great sense of achievement.”  Although English is my primary language, there have been times in my life when, like Jenni, writing felt like a chore, not something to be enjoyed.   Like Jenni, maintaining a blog has been a way for me once again to enjoy the process of writing. 

May Harriet shares in her essay that she struggles with depression.  She has found that the feedback she receives through her blog is sometimes what inspires her to get out of bed in the morning.  Although I don’t struggle with depression, I have found that keeping an up to date record of my life does inspire me to do more.  If a few weeks go by and we don’t have any fun news to share, I’ll make sure to plan a fun event for our family.  I’ve also noticed that when we do things as a family, I am more conscious of small moments of whimsy and I am tuned in to the funny things my children say in order to write about them in the blog.

Keith Addison writes, “I think I am one of the few people who can say that writing saved my life.  If I hadn’t have kept that diary and had the outlet through my blog, I may not have been sitting here today to write this.”  He had struggled with binge eating for most of his life but by chronicling his struggles in his blog, he was able to overcome his eating challenges.  Another outcome of his blog was the opportunities he received to give presentations about raising a child with a genetic disability at medical conferences.

While blogging hasn’t saved my life, it has blessed it in unexpected ways.  A blog post I wrote about my husband’s work as a land surveyor was published in a magazine.  That publication was selected as the author of the year for the publication and I received an award of $500 for my contribution.  As a stay at home mom, unexpectedly receiving $500 was extremely validating to myself as an author. 

“There is nothing to writing.  All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”  At times, narrative writing feels like creating the words with our very blood.  Why do writers choose to engage in such a sacrifice?  Through reading the narratives of other authors and comparing them to my own experience, I have found that although we have very different life experiences, writing benefits authors in similar ways. Writing is more than a form of expression.  It can be a way to heal ourselves, to inspire ourselves, and a way to open ourselves to unforeseen opportunities.  Just as physicians used to bleed their patients in order to cleanse them of sickness, when we “sit at a typewriter and bleed”, we create something that cleanses us, strengthens us and causes us to grow in unexpected ways.