Write to Please Yourself First - What I'm Learning from Kurt Vonnegut

Strangely enough, this English Major in college has never read any of Kurt Vonnegut's books.  That is, until my daughter's boyfriend gifted me at Christmas with two slender volumes of his works.

I read Like Shaking Hands With God in one easy sitting.  The books provides a transcript of a moderated conversation about writing between two authors, Kurt Vonnegut and Lee Stringer.  The conversation takes place in NYC in 1998.

Here's my big take-away from this book - write first for yourself.  It's one thing to know your target audience inside and out, but what if we don't know ourselves because we don't listen to, or choose to ignore, our insides?  Vonnegut urges writers to keep it sincere - "You cannot fool a reading audience!"

When asked why he writes, Lee Stringer explains:

For me, the reason I do it is it's the first thing I completely chose to do on my own:  tried on my own, made up myself, and kind of found that I could do all right at it.  That's about ninety percent of it.  I guess there's ten percent in the fact that I find that it's very good for me.  So  that leaves maybe half a percent where I hope it'll be good for you guys.  I don't mean to be stingy, but I found that when I try to do it the other way, I overdo it, and then it's good for no one.

I underline this passage in ink.  I feel liberated by these words.  It feels real.  I like real.

Vonnegut writes because he thinks readers need to hear this message:

I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people don't care about them.  You are not alone.

I write to plunge down below the surface and see what I discover when I bring it up to the light.  Stringing pieces of myself together to see how they fit, if they fit.  And telling others about what's real for me, true for me.  Finding ways to connect to myself in order to connect to you.  Knowing that we are in this together

And always intending . . .  to keep SPIRIT in gear.

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Select related posts:

- How I stop myself from writing

- Connecting the dots from higher guidance

- What I've gained from writing morning pages

 

 

 

Comments

[Shamelle -TheEnhanceLife]

I haven't read the book, but this sounds a solid concept."Write to please yourself first" However... when dealing with customers.. that's a different story altogether!

[debbiecall]

Shamelle - yes, customers are a different story. What I did't mention in the post included a comment by Vonnegut that author Jaqueline Suzanne (Valley of the Dolls) was very successful, in his mind, because she was "sincere" in her writing. That tells me that no matter what we write about, or who we write to, it matters that "where" we write from within does matter in the end.

[Dick Richards]

Thanks for this Deb. You know that I let go of blogging for just over a year before starting up again a few months ago. I wasn't quite sure how to articulate what changed during that year, but this post helped. What happened was that I gave up all agendas and expectations except to enjoy creating posts because it is fun and because doing it helps me make sense of my experience. So that's why I am blogging again: to enjoy creating posts.

Once more, as with your series about divine guidance, you have offered something that I very much value. Thanks again!

[debbiecall]

Dick - thanks for that gem of a reminder - when ego creates mandates in the form of expectations and "agendas," such as "How much have my viewer stats increased this week?, the joy and fun of creating can quickly get sucked out.

I suspect that most long term bloggers exerience this conundrum.