What do you recommend I do with all those things I wrote years ago but have never been able to bring myself to show anyone?
Start showing them to people. Friends. Co-workers. Strangers on the street.
Put them up on blog and invite all comers to read them.
Write some more new stories.
Rework the old stories.
Keep showing up at the page.
No matter what anyone says or where you think you might go or how you think you might get there.
Just keep showing up.
Day after day after day.
Write for you and no one else.
Show a trusting friend or family member your work first, that is if you know they won't be overly critical. Then join a forum for writers or website where you can find a safe community of writers to share work.
I also recommend Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way" program or book.
Bring them out, everyone has a voice and it needs to be heard. Information about your familys life, everything write it down. Publish it yourself but get it in book form. The history of the world has not been truthful and we need every voice to come out and speak so the truth of lives are shown. Everybody has a story and it needs to be heard, it needs to be printed. Sorry about the soap box but I would like everyone to have their voice out there.
Bloggs, publishing online or on print, or even getting your self a column in a newspaper or a magazine would do...
Show them to someone -- a friend or family member, or, better yet, take a writing class and use them in the class. It's a great way to get your writing before other people and it's a relatively safe place to do so.
Look at them again. Revise, revise, revise. Perhaps you will find a pearl.
Make a commonplace book or create a blog, even if you don't share it with anyone. Just create whatever you want, and look at it like a creative chronology of your own life. Maybe even put a commentary to it, or an analysis from your perspective today. What have you learned from reviewing this old work? How much have you changed since then? You've have a fun, creative time, gain a little perspective, and grow a little self-aware. It's beautiful. I revisit old stuff all the time.
Keep them in a safe place, and wait just awhile longer. Little-by-little bring them out and s.l.o.w.l.y. read them. You will reacquaint yourself when the time is right and you'll know just what to do.
Do what you feel, but if you want to show someone, try starting a blog. That's how I got over my fear of sharing. That way, if people don't like it, they're not in front of you to tell you. If they like it, they're usually good about responding to your blog (in my experience that is).
Open a blogspot and share the best of what you have. People will come along and comment those pieces and who knows? You may find enough interest to inspire you to publish them.
Share them with the courage a painter shows in exhibiting in a gallery.
Send them to whoever will read it! Just tell them it's old stuff, and they'd be helping you out by giving you some feedback so you know what to clean up and what should go back in the attic. And it might help you chart your progress as a writer. Never be ashamed of old writing.
Put them on www.authonomy.com. YOu will generally get an honest opinion, though you do have to put your real life on hold for several months and devote yourself entirely to the site, so be prepared for this. Everyone has something to say. I really do believe that. It it's really no good, someone will let you know! You need quite a thick skin, so don't be too precious about it.
Find someone you trust who can write and allow them to help you perfect it. Either perfect them or stop writing.
I don't know. Are they any good? I'll take a look at them, if you want. You could be Emily Dickinson! Or... horribly, awfully not. |
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