Many who know me intimately know that Maeve Binchy was one of my favorite authors growing up. I have a few favorite childhood authors in fact because in my household reading was the foremost pastime. To name a few there was L.M. Montgomery, Beverly Cleary, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Julie Campbell Tatham and the list could go on and on. As I got older I discovered different genres like crime and mystery and couldn't get enough of Patricia Cornwell, John Grisham or James Patterson.
However, in honor of my father on this most recent father's day I must credit him with introducing me to so much more. I usually list my three most cherished memories of my father as riding our bikes all around town, listening and learning to appreciate the Beatles and my love of baseball. Yet, when I think of my Dad I also recall literature, not just books but classic literature. I credit him with introducing me to a literature that is considered classical and such authors as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Shakespeare (of course), Mark Twain, and again I could go on and on.
He may not have realized at the time what introducing his like minded daughter to such classics would do. It opened my thinking of language. It expanded my world of expression and enriched my abilities of discourse beyond a teenager's slang. It also opened my thinking so that I could imagine those worlds that do not exist anymore but held a romanticism that I did not find in my own. Reading those classic stories, that still touch people today, influenced so much of how I learned to love words and discover my passion of writing. It opened my mind to poetry and rhythm of words, fiction that held characters still so real hundred years after pen to paper materialized them for the readers, and locations that became characters in their own right.
As a result of my father's influence, by the time I got to college I discovered so many other writers like Langston Hughes, Margaret Atwood, Allen Ginsberg and of course Maya Angelou. When Maeve Binchy passed away last July I was so saddened. I felt that I had lost a friend I had never met. All the characters she introduced me to and the idea of Ireland she portrayed seemed as if it had a dark shroud of mourning placed over it. This year Maya Angelou passed away and I again felt that same sadness. In many respects she was one of the biggest influences when I thought of being a writer. Her words of inspiration having touched so many people around the world was undeniable but it was her life that influenced me.
Often we have dreams that seem so epic and large that to really reach for them we instead become our own barrier. I have always wanted to write more than short stories and poems and start my own fiction novel. Yet, the dream became so large and mixed with my own internal doubts, it was as if I built a boulder that I could not lift or move that blocked my path. Then, I watched a simple interview of Maya Angelou one afternoon. She talked of her simple upbringing and yet her passion for writing . She spoke of the influences in her life and the trials she went through which she used to then share with the world what she learned and how she overcame each to reach happiness. A happiness that was discovered through writing and a passion for writing that was endless. It was as if she always had the stories inside of her knocking at the door of her mind but until she let go of some of her fears she could not unlock the door to let those stories out and put them on paper. In the end, it was the fears that held her back that also pushed her forward.
In honor of Maya Angelou and her influence on me I have found some of her most inspirational quotes about writing:
What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks “the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat.” And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, “Okay. Okay. I’ll come.”
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
Making a decision to write was a lot like deciding to jump into a frozen lake.
Talent is like electricity. We don’t understand electricity. We use it.
Tell the truth and not the facts.
The writer has to take the most used, most familiar objects—nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs—ball them together and make them bounce, turn them a certain way and make people get into a romantic mood; and another way, into a bellicose mood. I'm most happy to be a writer.
I see a yellow pad, and my knees get weak, and I salivate.
Poetry is the strongest language we have.
And of course my favorite quote that I have never forgotten once I read it:
A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.
If I had to give anyone advice about writing it would be to first be a reader. Discover different authors and genres and formats. Try to emulate and then try to create. First learn as a spectator and then discover your own voice, words and story and you will stand out on your own. It took me a long time to get over my own fear of starting to write a novel. In that time though I was learning and reading and discovering. Once I was ready it was because of the influence and passion I could no longer deny to finally write my own novel. This in turn has led to an outpouring of ideas and creations to follow this first book. So if you are a writer...read and learn, then go out and create. The stories are inside of you just waiting to fall upon the page. As Maya Angelou taught us..."A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song." Unlock your song, or story, and let it sing.
No comments:
Post a Comment