This book has helped me write more. After almost a month hiatus from reading and blogging it feels great to have the time to write for the blog. But getting back into a routine is harder when it’s been interrupted for a prolonged period of time. I decided to rekindle my love for writing and get some strategies to write from Keiko O’Leary’s book, Your Writing Matters: 34 Quick Essays to Get Unstuck and Stay Inspired. You already know it worked like a charm – I am writing more already!
Your Writing Matters: 34 Quick Essays to Get Unstuck and Stay Inspired
By Keiko O’Leary | Goodreads
Read: October 19-20
What you write can change someone’s life.
In this engaging collection of short essays for writers, Keiko O’Leary explores what it means to live life as a writer, offers encouragement and inspiration, and suggests practical techniques to cultivate your writing life. Drawing on her experience as a writer, writing group leader, and workshop instructor, Keiko writes about topics such as:
MOTIVATION: “You deserve to create what’s in you to create.”
CREATIVITY: “Your personal geography is a wellspring of memoir and poetry, and a source of authentic detail for fiction.”
LEGACY: “Through your writing, you help people experience meaning, not only in what you write, but also in their own lives.”
Whether you have years of experience or are just starting out, these essays will support you on your writing journey.
On Writing. Period.
In her first essay, Keiko encourages the reader to do a writing session. 20-30 min-however long possible – to just write. And when it’s done, read it back to yourself. I tried it with some coaxing from her (she knew she would have to say it twice for some of us reluctant readers, or should I say writers?) and I am so glad I did – I just needed to dedicate time to writing.
The first essay encourages any and all writing. Whether it ends up being a personal reflection, a book review, questions for the author or the meal plan for the next week, it is writing. This review is coming from multiple writing sessions! What this exercise highlighted for me was that it is possible to flow from personal writing into noting thoughts that eventually make it to the blog.
I also loved how Keiko integrated her love for reading into the essays. The writers whose works move her, the fictional character of Dr Watson and the world and society of Star Trek – it added another dimension to her, beyond that of a writer, and I recognized the strong connection that we can make with books and storytelling. I often journal about the characters and setting I am reading and I was thrilled to see Keiko’s reflections related to reading.
On Coming back to Writing
Keiko highlights the importance of a system to support intention, sharing her personal way of organizing the stories and ideas she has. After finishing my university education, I started to spend more time orgainzing and setting up my personal Google Drive. I have been trying to have something consistent for tracking my reading and writing since then. Having a go-to place to keep all my drafts, now a physical journal to jot down ideas and a blog to publish what I am satisfied with are a few systems that come to mind. They continue to encourage me to read and write, while evolving with my needs whenever they need some tweaking. They remind me of books I want to read or have read, the reflections I have done and the things I have learned from all of it.
If you love writing, but it’s not your top thing, keep writing. Maybe write a little less and do your top thing a little more, but keep writing. Keep coming to Write to the End or going to your own writing group. What you do there will help you do your top thing.
Keiko O’Leary in Your Writing Matters, Essay Title: No enterprise
Writing has helped me keep reading but it has also kept me with a book longer. To find stories, fiction and non-fiction, to immerse myself in and then share about them. There is a pull that I feel with certain books (like this one!) – I want to spend hours thinking of them, going through my notes, finding or creating an illustration that will be able to depict how I feel about it or taking a photo for instagram. A book can spark so much creativity, and I didn’t know that for a long time. The books that get a full post are very special to me. In the last three years, every book that I have connected with at a deeper level has found a full post on my blog. To write down my thoughts, making them a concrete thing I can go back to. To spend more time with a book, that is always my top thing.
On Wisdom for living
Your Writing Matters is not just a book about writing. It is about life. It is about learning to love ourselves and our writing. It has a similar spirit as Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic (read my gushing post about that) which also boosted my creative pursuits. There are lessons that Keiko shares that she has learned from everyday life and applied to her writing which were helpful for me to reflect upon, such as how serving dinner can teach us to finish the article we are working on. Every little thing that we do in life, how we do it, it has something to offer to our top thing.
Do your top thing, and put it first, but let the rest of your life flower, too. The other things you love, the care and depth with which you do them, the appreciation you give to the passing and irretrievable moments of this one life – all will return to you and help you as you work on your top thing, and your life will become a story.
Keiko O’Leary in Your Writing Matters, Essay Title: No enterprise
Your writing matters.
This is the biggest lesson from the book, and through the essays, I believe it. My writing matters. Thank you, Keiko, for reminding me and giving me a book that I can always go back to when I need this reminder.
I hope that you have enjoyed reading this review of Your Writing Matters. The book is on sale until November 15 at a number of booksellers and I hope that if I have piqued your interest, you can read one of the essays and learn more about Keiko from this interview and book excerpt post. You can also check out the topics of the essays on Amazon using Look Inside.
Many thanks to the publisher, Thinking Ink Press, for bringing this book to my attention. I received a complimentary review copy for an honest review.
A look through my blog archives revealed a number of articles that I wrote about writing and writing routines. Writing Regularly: Getting into your Head – This conversation with Buster Benson was a great one to look back at and revisit the what, why, how and when of writing regularly, exploring the different ways in which we have integrated it in our lives. Give it a read!
Lofi Girl is one of my favorite channels to listen to on YouTube. The art in this post are used by them. Downloaded from UDH Wallpaper.
That sounds excellent! Wonderful review of a wonderful sounding book.