Hello everyone,
In the past month or so, I’ve made some very interesting discoveries about my writing that have been confirmed by the book I’m reading today. Let me tell you a bit about the book, (no spoilers included), and then I’ll share my discoveries.
I’m in the process of reading Writers Block by Hank Garner, host of the author stories podcast. If you would like to listen to his podcast and/or learn a little more about him, please visit his website at the following link:
http://www.hankgarner.com
This book is making me laugh and cry, and it’s pulling at my heart strings and making me care. Here are the truths that this book confirms for me:
The first thing I have discovered is that although I don’t play a traditional musical instrument, my words are my instrument and my stories are the songs I hear within my innermost being. My second, yet more profound discovery is that I not only hear the spiritual rhythm that Waylon tells Stu about in this book, but I also feel the rhythm. I write the stories that come from my internal melodies. If these stories that I write and put out into the world can touch just one life, out of the hundreds, maybe even thousands of people that read them, then I know that I’ve done my job. This is the driving force that keeps me going.
Like Hank Garner and other writers, whose books tear at your heart strings, I strive to make people care about my characters as if they were real people. The stories I write are not written for mere entertainment, they are deeply emotional and have a special message, while you try to solve the mysteries within the pages.
Let me explain how I have discovered the truth of how music and my writing are deeply connected. When I tried to teach myself how to play the keyboard, I would hear a melody in my head and picture myself playing this melody, but I couldn’t transpose that melody through my fingers onto the keys. However, when I would sing a song that I made up off the top of my head, no matter whether it made sense or sounded like the songs we all know and love today, often times, the song would turn into a story idea. I may have said something about this in another blog post a while back, but I wanted to bring it to your attention again, to say one thing: If you love music as much as I do, but you’re not a musician, don’t think that the melodies you hear in your head are just empty, useless pieces of music that will never see the light of day. If you’re a writer, or you have a special talent in a different art form, the music you hear in your heart and mind comes out through your craft.
I’ll leave you with one final question: What discoveries have you made about your own writing, and how have these discoveries touched the lives of your readers. Please share your thoughts in the comments below or add your thoughts in your own blog post, if you decide to press or reblog this post for your own readers.
Happy reading and writing, and have a blessed Sunday afternoon.