“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” -16:3
I sit in front of the laptop, and the cursor-
That cursed cursor!
-Is blinking at me, cold and unfeeling. My story slows, my mind skids to a merciless stop.
I’ve seen these signs before; I know I am going nowhere, and it’s the worst feeling.
Is this writer’s block? It feels more like a sink’s faucet turning itself off, halting any running water. In this world, turning the faucet off saves marine animal’s lives, which is great. In the writer’s world (which is muchmuchmuch different), turning the faucet off means that your creativity just disappeared down the drain.
Whoops.
Whatever you do, don’t panic. It will come back, just like good ideas and butterflies, landing on your shoulder (or slipping into your unsuspecting mind), right when you least expect it. In the meantime, I’m going to take a moment to step into the wings, and give my friend Jo the spotlight.
Perhaps you’ve heard of her? The extraordinary, the phenomenal, the remarkable, the magnificent, the spellbinding, the enthralling, the breathtaking, J. K. Rowling (only a true fan of the seven Harry Potter would catch the pointed use of these seven adjectives).
My family’s Harry Potter books sit proud and tall in a lovely ragged, though much-cherished pile right beside my bed (piled by the books on my priority to-read-next reading list: Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty, Isabel Allende’s Zorro, Lois Lowry’s Gathering Blue, and so on. My reading pattern can be extremely random. I hardly ever read what are considered ‘adult novels,’ and you’ll almost never catch me reading one of those gloomy, often narcissistic ‘young adult novels.’ I write for children, and those who still have the wisdom of children, so if a fellow college student is ever rude enough to make fun of the fact that I’m still reading Trenton Lee Stewart’s The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma, I could patiently remind him or her that I read Doctor Zhivago when I was twelve, along with five of Jules Verne’s seven novels, and fully comprehended and enjoyed them. Alright, I wouldn't actually say that, because that would be rude. It’s simply that I have the freedom to read what I like, regardless of age, and you should too, unashamedly! Anyway. Back to Rowling).
All seven have crinkled spines, and my favorites (which may or may not involve a certain prisoner of Azkaban, and a certain order of a certain phoenix), are even peeling a bit at the corners. This is undoubtedly from the number of times I’ve fallen asleep with a book under the covers with a flashlight.
People love the world of Harry Potter for different reasons. I don’t personally worship the world of Harry Potter; I’ve never been to a Harry Potter convention, or been a part of a Harry Potter fan club, or even watched all of those popular Harry Potter movies (although I will admit that I was sorted, and I am satisfied to be declared a wholesome Hufflepuff). It’s not a madness to me, as it seems to be for so many of the readers of the world.
Just like the other writers proudly displayed on my Wall of Writers, J. K. Rowling didn’t earn her place because she’s popular and successful. She’s there because her writing is truly great writing, and she inspires me.
Rowling discovered a self-created porthole into a different world. That’s something any writer would swallow her own pen to have. Her writing reminds me of how much more powerful and effective a few choice words can be, versus sentences and sentences of insipid blah-de-blah. Cramming as much description and detail into a few words is like magic. Cunning twists and turns are at their finest. Characters are both crazy and amazingly alive. In short, J. K. Rowling’s books are excellent guides for those who want to write. Not to copy what she’s created, mind you, but to learn the craft and art; she helped me develop a style of my own, spreading my own writing wings, and taking to the sky with her books as my take-off ground (which is, essentially, what all good books should be able to do for blossoming writers).
Not only that, but she’s given readers an entire new world to discover and explore, which (when done correctly), is always amazingly entertaining to read about. There are so many new places (Knockturn Alley, the Leaky Cauldron), dozens of names (Nymphadora Lupin, Cornelius Fudge), spells (Expecto Patronum! Alohomora! Riddikulus!), and such, giving readers so much to read and digest and love. And readers are really just aching for books that they can love, you know.
We hardly ever really do get something good, I mean, really, really worthwhile. And Rowling’s work is so honest that it’s just as satisfying as a real piece of dark chocolate. To me, at least.
So, from J. K. Rowling’s books, there are so many clever writing tips one can learn. I’ve only really scratched the surface. And the nice thing of it is, when she was writing these books, she didn’t know that they would become what they are now. She wrote because she needed to write, and she wrote what she loved. That’s the real way to write something great, and it reminds me of Rowling’s five writing rules, which I think a rather helpful:
https://www.nownovel.com/blog/five-great-writing-tips-from-j-k-rowling/
I like that last one.
And, as author Anne Rice once said, "If these 'rules' or suggestions don’t work for you, by all means disregard them completely! You’re the boss when it comes to your writing." This is true for all writing advice. Even this advice.
Sometimes it helps me to remember that I should never write specifically to become rich and famous. That attitude never gets any writer far, and it certainly isn’t the incentive that good writing requires. As you once said, Johnny, “Keep trying. If you love to write, it will come.”
Ah yes, though technically you wrote that.
Yes, I wrote it, but I wrote you saying it, so-
Argh! Stop! Headache!
Regardless, it’s true. Do you love what you do? Then it doesn’t matter if you think you’re good enough. Keep trying, no matter what (and there’s more weight in that ‘no matter what,’ than one might first think), and it will come. Writers such as J. K. Rowling will show you that it can be done, it will be done, if you have the bravery, wit, and stomach to face it, and, by jove, I think all of this writing about writing has turned my creative flow back on! Oh frabjous day!
Callooh! Callay!
I’m sorry to leave so suddenly, but the blinking cursor is calling me, and I must go. As is true to all of those with a writing spirit, who must write because they must read and so they must write.
And so on.
Merlin’s Pants!
