My VBT-Writers on the Move guest for this week is Joyce Anthony. We visited with her on the June 1 post, and today, she has provided an guest blog. From the keyboard of Joyce Anthony, author of Storm:
Are You a Spiritual Writer? by Joyce A. Anthony
Who do you write for?
Why do you write?
Stop and think for a minute before you answer the above questions? Are you sure of your answers?
Most of us believe we are writing from a point inside ourselves and many also believe we only write for ourselves, but often this is not the case. Ask yourself the following questions:
Do you seek approval from others on what you write?
Do you seek out someone to tell you how well you are doing?
If you had to justify WHAT you write, could you?
When you are writing from spirit, you do not need the approval of those outside yourself. Not only that, you do not even seek that approval, for you KNOW you are doing good, you know it works.
This is not the conceited kind of believing that makes a person feel they are better writers than others. This belief comes from a place where other writers are not part of the equation--you write well. You do not need to compare yourself to others.
Do you write to entertain, to make money, to achieve recognition? You do not, in either case write from spirit. Writing from spirit has no purpose--it is writing for writing's sake. You write because you must. You have no other purpose.
Does your writing reflect who you are inside? If asked why you write a particular genre, can you say "That's who I am"? If the answer is "no", then the writing comes from outside the spirit.
Is there anything wrong with writing outside the spirit? No. As writers, 99.9 percent do just that. The problem arises because we do not write our best when we do this. The best writing is that which comes from spirit. Plain and simple--it's the difference between good writing and great.
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Book Trailer for Storm
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19 comments:
What she said.
Totally agree. :)
The Old Silly from Free Spirit Blog
Interesting post -- gives you a lot to think about.
Excellent post! Very interesting and thought-provoking...
Thanks for stopping by. I've enjoyed having Joyce as my guest this week.
Joyce...I agree with the others. Terrific post and makes a lot of sense.
Best wishes,
Donna
I enjoyed this. Even though I have already hosted Joyce on my blog, it is nice to see something totally different than an interview here. I learned more about this exciting author!
Thank you, Everyone-and Vivian, I appreciate you allowing me to make a guest post-I think people sometimes learn more about us from what we write than questions we answer!
You are right about writing from within because that gives a feeling of fulfillment. It also defines who we are, especially to ourselves as we reread what we write.
Joyce may not be considered the best author in the world but that is only because she hasn't been read by everyone....YET!
Good post
I like the guest blog. Interesting perspective, Joyce.
We're going to miss you at the VBT - Writers on the Move group.
I hope I see you in other places.
Karen
I'll be around Karen-you can't get rid of me completely! I'd rather give a hundred percent to a few things than two percent to a dozen. I hope that makes sense?
I've been doing more guest posts lately and will be presenting at the Muse Online Conference this year (three subjects!.
I'm always willing to host people on my blog, do reviews and interviews, etc...
Very interesting post, Joyce. As writers we need to look inward from time to time to gain perspective.
Thank you, Joyce, for the guest post. I enjoyed hosting you this week.
Stay in touch, please.
Thank you, Vivian-I will most certainly stay in touch!
Very thought provoking blog. I agree. We'll certainly miss Joyce.
It does seem that we write the best when we ignore what convention says we should write and, instead, write what we feel inside. Nice post!
Helen
Straight From Hel
I liked this piece, it made think about my writing. Sometimes we just take it for granted, you are so right in what you say in this article. Thanks for sharing!
Liana
Thank you Vivian for this interesting post!
Liana
Truly an interesting and thought-provoking post. Wow! Different post. Loved it.
Makes a lot of sense. Posted a link on Friendfeed to this one.
good job!
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