Grandma Henke

I’ve had two paperback books (click on books to the left) here on my bookshelf above my computer for some time (probably 7 years at least). I think I’ve read them each a couple of times and read from them randomly quite a few times because they get me enthused about my writing.

“If You Can Talk, You Can Write” , by Joel Saltzman is simple a English book on (1) how you get past the fear of writing (2) how you talk (communicate) on paper, (3) talks about what you write about and how you polish and (4) talks about tricks that keep you writing and producing. By the way, when I was looking Joe Saltzman up on the internet I found these Blogging Lessons, which I found quite interesting.

Stephen King’s “On Writing”, is a book I find fascinating because, (1), it is an autobiography of his life and, (2) it contains a comprehensive writing tool kit that includes everything from writing assignments to now to build a paragraph. I love this book. I looked him up online and found this nifty place with some of his quotes. I liked, “You can’t deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.”

We develop our style of writing as we go, and for some of us it is so second nature we really don’t see that maybe we have a gift or a real talent in it … because, gee, it doesn’t seem hard and it’s fun. By all means, I don’t mean to imply that I’m all that great of a writer … yet … but I have had a few people compliment me on my writing at church or online or in social groups and I always think, “me?” The last few years, I’ve begun to realize not everyone enjoys writing and in fact, some people don’t like it at all. (Like how organizing is for me … Deciding what to keep and what to toss drives me nuts.)

I’ve always liked to play around with the written word. I like to massage words and make sure I say what I mean to say. When I talk my brain shoots words out and I sometimes say them without hanging onto them long enough to make sure they will convey the right message.

So … after reading the autobiographies of a few writers I wonder … do you ever become satisfied or do you always have that desire to write, write, write? I honestly don’t know how many people actually come to my blog and enjoy the content … but I enjoy the content so it has been a valuable outlet for my writing “urge”. And now I’ve written a book and it has taken this urge to write and given it a hard shake as if to say “Wake Up, urge!” And now it’s growing I’m starting to wonder if it can ever be satisfied.

And this will make you laugh. Well, maybe it won’t make you laugh, but it made me and my sister laugh. I just found out yesterday that I also like to draw. I wanted a picture of Aunt Nellie, the main character of my book, so I drew her … and I was amazed that I could draw her well enough that she looked like Aunt Nellie. So now there is another little “urge”inside of me screaming to be fed. After all of these years, who’d a thought?

Technorati Tags: Steven King, Talents, Writing, Recognizing Our talent, On Writing, If You Can Talk You Can Write.