Over And Over, We Have

It Is Very Important To Go Home If You Want Your Work To Be Whole. You Don't Have To Move In With Your Parents Again And Collect A Weekly Allowance, But You Must Claim Where You Come From And Look Deep Into It. Come To Honor And Embrace It, Or At The Least, Accept It.

Once You Have Learned To Trust Your Own Voice And Allowed That Creative Force Inside You To Come Out, You Can Direct It To Write Short Stories, Novels, And Poetry, Do Revisions, And So On. You Have The Basic Tool To Fulfill Your Writing Dreams. But Beware. This Type Of Writing Will Uncover Other Dreams You Have, Too-going To Tibet, Being The First Woman President Of The United States, Building A Solar Studio In New Mexico-and They Will Be In Black And White. It Will Be Harder To Avoid Them.

In Writing With Detail, You Are Turning To Face The World. It Is A Deeply Political Act, Because You Are Not Staying In The Heat Of Your Own Emotions. You Are Offering Up Some Good Solid Bread For The Hungry.

That's Very Nice If They Want To Publish You, But Don't Pay Too Much Attention To It. It Will Toss You Away. Just Continue To Write.

When You Write What You Know, You Stay In Control. One Of The First Things I Encourage My Writing Students To Do Is To Lose Control - Say What They Want To Say, Break Structure.