Jan Marquart's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing-as-vision"
What Is Your Vision?
Writing is visionary. Do you believe that? Good. Because it is. When we read anything, be it a novel, essay, poem, we get a glimpse of the vision held in the mind and soul of the writer.
For those of you who have written something from your heart, you had a vision beforehand of what you wanted to say and what you wanted the reader to see, feel, know, understand, or experience. The vision was clear.
Looking back on every one of the eight books and two booklets I've written, I had a vision, each time, before I started moving my fingers so nimbly over the keys. I might not have known exactly how I was going to construct my sentences, what the last sentence would be, or even what some of the text would be like. But what I did have was a vision of the book in my mind and soul of the total project. Then, and only then, could the final editing for the tiny details begin. The energy of the book was important. It represented my vision.
I think this is where many writers get blindsided. From what I have noticed with many of the men, women, and teens who worked with me on manuscripts and in my workshops, when their vision changed, their project stopped dead in its tract.
For example, one woman started to write a memoir about her relationship with her mother. Her vision was to tell the truth about what it was like to be her mother's daughter. (This was the workshop I did out of my book Echoes From the Womb, a Book for Daughters (www.createspace.com/3546083 and on Amazon.)) The vision for the book was strong and clear. It was to tell about her pain in making decisions in relationships with men and her career in order to please her mother. She painstakingly revealed the consequential guilt and shame she held for marrying a man she knew would become violent to her and her children but did so anyway to please her mother who just wanted her daughter to be married to a doctor. The worst part of this story was that she had forsaken the man she really loved in order to satisfy her mother. She had lived a broken heart for almost four decades. Her story and the vision she had for telling it was powerful. I helped her with the manuscript for most of the way and then it fell flat because her vision changed when she realized it would hurt her son. She didn't want him to see his grandmother or father in a negative light. She tried to continue the project but her own vision had deviated from the truth and she couldn't do it. The honest motivation for the book that came from her own soul - had crumbled.
To this day, from what I've heard, this woman has put her manuscript away even though the desire to write her story burns inside her. This story, if she had taken the courage to write it, would have been one that could have helped young women all over the world in communicating with their mothers.
Keep on track with your vision for that is where good writing comes from. Remember, your vision is connected to your soul. There is nothing more powerful than writing from that sacred place.
For those of you who have written something from your heart, you had a vision beforehand of what you wanted to say and what you wanted the reader to see, feel, know, understand, or experience. The vision was clear.
Looking back on every one of the eight books and two booklets I've written, I had a vision, each time, before I started moving my fingers so nimbly over the keys. I might not have known exactly how I was going to construct my sentences, what the last sentence would be, or even what some of the text would be like. But what I did have was a vision of the book in my mind and soul of the total project. Then, and only then, could the final editing for the tiny details begin. The energy of the book was important. It represented my vision.
I think this is where many writers get blindsided. From what I have noticed with many of the men, women, and teens who worked with me on manuscripts and in my workshops, when their vision changed, their project stopped dead in its tract.
For example, one woman started to write a memoir about her relationship with her mother. Her vision was to tell the truth about what it was like to be her mother's daughter. (This was the workshop I did out of my book Echoes From the Womb, a Book for Daughters (www.createspace.com/3546083 and on Amazon.)) The vision for the book was strong and clear. It was to tell about her pain in making decisions in relationships with men and her career in order to please her mother. She painstakingly revealed the consequential guilt and shame she held for marrying a man she knew would become violent to her and her children but did so anyway to please her mother who just wanted her daughter to be married to a doctor. The worst part of this story was that she had forsaken the man she really loved in order to satisfy her mother. She had lived a broken heart for almost four decades. Her story and the vision she had for telling it was powerful. I helped her with the manuscript for most of the way and then it fell flat because her vision changed when she realized it would hurt her son. She didn't want him to see his grandmother or father in a negative light. She tried to continue the project but her own vision had deviated from the truth and she couldn't do it. The honest motivation for the book that came from her own soul - had crumbled.
To this day, from what I've heard, this woman has put her manuscript away even though the desire to write her story burns inside her. This story, if she had taken the courage to write it, would have been one that could have helped young women all over the world in communicating with their mothers.
Keep on track with your vision for that is where good writing comes from. Remember, your vision is connected to your soul. There is nothing more powerful than writing from that sacred place.
