Write What You Love...

Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for. –Ray Bradbury

This week I pulled out some of the stories written at the very beginning of my foray into fiction. What started me on my journey as an author was a love of speculative fiction. Twilight Zone stuff. My passion for the eternal "what if?" drove me to create my own worlds where strange and wondrous things might occur.

On one of my many writing loops, an author had posed a question about Taboos in Writing. Along with penning New York Times Bestselling novels, Allison Brennan always has time to add her voice and provide inspiration and insight to her fellow writers. Her comments charged me up yet again, reminding me that writing must come from the heart or it's just words on a page.


I really believe that you have to write what you love, and if you hold back or water it down you're cheating yourself and your future readers. I also think that it's harder to sell, because the passion won't be in the writing. Almost every editor I've spoken to has said that they buy because they love a book. Often they can't articulate why they love it, but usually when pushed they'll say "voice and characters." Allison Brennan

In the feverish pursuit towards publication, some of us may find dangling before our weary eyes the temptation to shelve what we love in order to write for the market. For a scant few, this will work. For most of us, it's a dangerous path. Be wary of closing your heart to your true passion. Remember always… Write What You Love.

Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning: I wanted to know what I was going to say. ~Sharon O'Brien

Unless your writing enflames you with a sense of wonder and passion, why bother? Let Writing Be A Path Of Self-Discovery. Push yourself to question your characters and let them teach you about life and yourself. Writing is an exciting adventure or it's merely chewing cardboard. *grin*

The writer writes in order to teach himself, to understand himself, to satisfy himself; the publishing of his ideas, though it brings gratification, is a curious anticlimax. ~Alfred Kazin, Think, February 1963

Push yourself beyond your limits as a writer. Push beyond the story, beyond the outline, beyond what you first wanted to say. When you do this, a curious thing happens. The story takes over where your intellect first began. You move from being a writer to being a listener. Your heart will guide you. Let it.

The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say. ~Anaïs Nin

Find your passion. Discover your inner dreams. And Write ON, my friend… Write on…

Let's set some goals!

Outline is finished so writing for me. I'm shooting for:

15 pages.
Weekly essay.
Rewrite of a short story.

How about you? Ready to share some goals?

Here's to a week of self-discovery!

Go-go-GO! Write-write-WRITE!

--Chiron