Writing Your Bliss

Right now I am in an enchanted place, and I want to share more of it with you, those who toil along with me in this writing gig.

The first presentation I ever gave about writing was, "Writing With Emotion."  It has now grown and been incorporated into my classes.

But that's not what I'm talking about here.

I'm not talking about how to write with passion, with emotion. 

I'm not talking about craft.

F. Scott Fitzgerald once offered this advice to a young student:

"You’ve got to sell your heart, your strongest reactions, not the little minor things that only touch you lightly, the little experiences that you might tell at dinner. This is especially true when you begin to write, when you have not yet developed the tricks of interesting people on paper, when you have none of the technique which it takes time to learn. When, in short, you have only your emotions to sell."

Selling your heart, your emotions, your passions.  That means being fearless and going where it sometimes hurts to go, digging deep where it sometimes hurts to dig, and fueling your fiction with this source that is deeper than coal or oil and more powerful than atomic energy, and the reason he gives is so that you can do what we all want to do--write something people are willing to spend money to read.

But I'm also not talking about why to write with emotion, with passion. 

I'm not talking about selling.

I'm talking about the creation, the work itself, the sitting down and doing of it.

And that starts quite simply, and yet, for too many of us, not obviously.

First, you have to identify your passion. 

Find that world--whether it is a physical location or a kind of magic or technology or a genre or a dream--that stirs you to the depth of your soul. 

Find that passion that excites you, and come up with a story that embraces it.

Create characters that deserve it.

Design a world that involves it. 

Make your writing a place that you can't wait to get to, that is worth it even when it's hard, that sizzles in you like fresh infatuation and forbidden love and ageless wonder.

Find your passion and write about it, and you will have created work that you love, and there is nothing more rewarding than that.

And when you do that, when you finally find that passion and delve into it, and when you learn your craft so that you can execute it with precision and yes, the passion it deserves—

You will have achieved the success of finding work that you love to do.

You will have found your bliss, and followed it, and lived it. 

In the words of Joseph Campbell:

"I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be."   

And when you do that, you will have built your very best foundation for success that comes from publication, for if your work is infused with that kind of intensity, you will reach people, you will touch people, you will find your audience.

Come with me.  

Write your bliss.