Since the beginning of the year, I have been working on a new book. As of April, I had only been able to craft six chapters. I literally felt as if I was swimming upstream in trying to clearly envision and create just the right storyline, and the characters to deliver it.
Taking pity on me and trying to help, my daughter messaged me a link to a mid-May online writer's workshop. The thing is, I have never attended a writer's workshop. In fact, I am usually the person teaching such events.
All that aside, there was something about this, my 6th book, that was demanding I do something different. I clicked on the link for the writer's workshop and read the title:
"Why Write, What to Write, and How to Write"
UGH!
I know why I write.
I definitely know what I want to write in this book.
After 40 years as an Op-Ed newspaper columnist, magazine profiler and author of five books, I certainly know how to write.
Then I came to the part of this event that convinced me to sign up.
It was the name of the person teaching the workshop.
The one and only NYTimes Bestseller, Anne Lamott.
While I was pretty sure the content Ms. Lamott would be offering was not ideally suited to my current author's needs, I was equally confident that there would be a moment in the three-hour event in which she would deliver one of her compelling gems of wisdom that would inspire me ---help me navigate back onto a writing path toward a book for readers to enjoy.
As it turned out, Ms. Lamott's gem ended up being something borrowed from a screenwriter friend she identified as, Randy. It was stellar motivation yet surprisingly basic...perhaps what made it so meaningful.
"Tell me a story. Make me care."
That was it.
So simplistic, yet it struck a chord deep within my writer's soul.
I fervently want Anne Lamott....and anyone who reads this book ...to care about the storyline, and the characters I am tasking with delivering it.
So, I am writing again. Still with struggles but also with worthy and encouraging results. In fact yesterday, I crossed over into the author's exalted realm of actually liking this book, this storyline, these characters.
It was a day of celebration, unexpectedly capped off with a package that arrived in the mail. A 25th anniversary edition of Anne Lamott's famed book on writing, Bird by Bird.
Part of the writing workshop was the opportunity to purchase any of Ms. Lamott's books complete with a personal inscription. When I pulled open that envelope and read the words scribed in Anne Lamott's own hand, exclusively for me, I understood that her writer's workshop continues to be exactly what I need, when I need it.
#TheSecretSandCircle