The Connectivity of Preaching and Writing
Here’s what moved me in Anne Lamott’s book, Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life:
Becoming a writer is about becoming conscious. When you’re conscious and writing from a place of insight and simplicity and real caring about the truth, you have the ability to throw the lights on for your reader. He or she will recognize his or her life and the truth in what you say.
Try to write in a directly emotional way, instead of being too subtle or oblique. Don’t be afraid of your material or your past. Be afraid of wasting any more time obsessing about how you look and how people see you. Be afraid of not getting your writing done.
If something inside you is real, we will probably find it interesting, and it will probably be universal. So, you must risk placing real emotion at the center of your work.
Write straight into the emotional center of things. Write toward vulnerability. Don’t worry about appearing sentimental. Worry about being unavailable; worry about being absent or fraudulent.
Risk being unliked. Tell the truth as you understand it. If you’re a writer, you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolutionary act … truth is always subversive.
My gosh, that’s inspiring! What’s startling is that this is what preaching should be like … fresh, conscious, direct as if spoken into the heart of a thing without using faith to slam people with shame. I love the connectivity of preaching and writing as if they are two sides of the same coin.
July 16th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
I love that book. Writing and preaching two sides of the same coin, eh? Guess I need to find a pulpit if I want my writing to improve!