Permission to WRITE (The Permission series part 2)

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Last week, I wrote about why we sometimes need to give ourselves permission to quit. To consider that as time goes by, our values and what is important to us changes, and as we change, the goals that we set in the past, or the projects that we started - may not align with who we currently are and what is important to us now or in the future. We need to release our feelings about what we believe quitting says about us as people - that we are weak, flighty, lazy, or failures, that we have commitment issues - and instead accept that as we have changed as people, it is ok to quit the projects that are no longer aligned with our values.

And I also mentioned, that when we give ourselves permission to quit, we are also on the verge of new beginnings, based on our current ideals. Today is about the second permission slip I am writing - permission to write. 

Shortly after finishing the writing and editing on the book I self-published a few years ago, I decided that I wanted to work on a book that was fun and felt like it was exactly what I wanted it to be. I decided to write my novel Lessons in Love, and the only criteria was that it was fun and full of ease. When I decided what I wanted it to be about, I thought it would be fun to fulfil my dreams of writing an advice column, and bring back the joy I used to have writing long letters and emails to my best friend during and after university. I had no plans of publishing it - in fact I had no plans at all - I just wanted to write something that I enjoyed. Last year in my October series on change, I wrote a bit about the process and how the book The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows gave me permission to write in letter format.

Writing that book was an incredible surprise to me. The truth is - I had grown up reading fiction and fantasy, and always dreamed of writing a fiction book that was long and juicy, with a plot that was so twisted, it needed another book just to explain it. I had spent years waiting for the type of ideas to come to me that would allow me to write such a book, and I had even started one or two. However, I will also admit that I didn’t think of love stories as the type of writing that proper authors do.

One of the conversations that Ann Zuccardy and I had during our clubhouse room Creatives Corner a few weeks ago, was about what I sometimes refer to as the hierarchy of literature, which I had observed as well as heard about from a young age. I remember being a student in English class and feeling as if I had to write something serious and pointed, when what I really wanted to write were stories that were fun and full of surprises. I came to feel as if there was some unspoken rule about what good writing was, and what made one a “proper author”, and in fact about what was worth reading. 

Of course, proper books were serious, and taught us about the human condition through heartbreak, beautiful language, and the tragic death of a few characters. On the other hand, “chick lit” was the type of thing that was written in simple language, full of sex scenes and required little or no talent. I even recently edited a piece for a friend who was worried because she felt her language was too simple, and she hadn’t used any big words. 

One thing I have learned over the years is that simple language can be powerful, and just as impactful (and sometimes even more so) than those books that still make me reach for the dictionary. And “chick lit” is one of the biggest segments of the publishing industry.  As an aside, I often think about the fact that so-called “chick lit” is predominantly by (and for) women and wonder if that is why it isn’t considered “proper” writing (and this is just a theory of mine. I have literally done no research on it). 

The reality is, I had never considered writing a romance novel, and honestly - I barely read them. But on that day in October, I gave myself permission to write whatever I wanted, and what emerged was the most fun writing project I had ever embarked on, which brought me continual joy when I sent it out via email the following year. Writing that novel changed so much about what I write, how I write, and what I understand about the writing process (and I’ll be writing more about that in the coming year!) Giving myself permission to write what I wanted instead of what I thought I should be writing was a game changer for my writing.

As I have spoken to and worked with writers over the past couple of years, I have come to the conclusion that sometimes when we get stuck in our writing, it is because we aren’t writing what we want to write. It could be the subject matter that we are writing about. It could be the tone or the language that we are using, the format that we are trying to stick to. It could be the type of book that we are writing. 

And we just need to give ourselves permission to write what is present for us in the moment - whether it is another story, another topic, skipping straight to chapter 40 even if we think we should be writing chronologically, writing fiction when we are working on an non-fiction project and so on. 

This can be a shot of energy for our creativity. It can be a source of ideas that feel new and fresh. It can bring us back to a love of writing that might have felt lost. And it can be a new project that we never dreamed we would do, and that is exactly the thing we need to be doing right now.

I have continued to give myself permission to write whatever I wanted to write. Even if I don’t publish it. Even if it is just something I do for my creative practice. And the truth is - often those pieces are the most resonant with readers. Taking this path has almost always taken my writing in new directions, and the outcome has always been one that I have never expected. 

What would happen if you gave yourself permission to write whatever you wanted?

What would you write about?

What story would you tell? What is calling to you to write it?

Are you willing to give it a chance?

Let me know in the comments.

And I send you big love from a small island!

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