Fearless

Happy Friday, my lovely readers! Don't you look dashing today! 

Below is Deanna Leah's second guest spot here on Writing, Editing, and All Things Rani. She's sharing on one of my favorite writing quotes (I know, I know, I have too many of those), and I hope you enjoy what you read. 

I'll be bringing her on to write some more fun pieces very soon, as well as bringing in a few fresh faces to tell us their thoughts on reading, writing, and the trials of publication. 

Happy reading! 

{RD}

p.s. Click here if you'd like to read Deanna's first post!

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Hello everyone! This is Deanna for round two!

Have you ever been in the middle of a story and then suddenly you stop and stare at your keyboard? Your writing has been jumping out of your fingertips like a bunch of frogs and suddenly you don't know what to say.

It's the terrible onslaught of writers block – which I believe is a falsified disease for writers who are afraid of what people may think of what they have to write or, even worse, afraid of what they will find in themselves if they write it. (are you seeing the connection with the previous post?)

When you were a teenager you probably had a diary. (Which if you are smart, unlike me, you would still keep up as a habit.) In this journal you were willing to write everything you thought, felt or asked. In this diary you documented your life in great detail.  You...

You were fearless in that 70 page, worn, tear stained notebook and now on your computer screen you are being called to be fearless again. You are being called to dig up ghosts you never wanted to experience again. You are being forced to reveal a broken heart to the world.

And that is what makes a best seller a best seller.

Many people may think that being a writer is a job for someone who wants to hide their life and problems behind prose, but I find that writers are the bravest people I have ever met. They are utterly vulnerable when they put their book in the hands of a stranger because a nonchalant reader doesn't see that they are reading the soul of another human being.

We are releasing our mess into the hands of the world to judge as they see fit and that is a terrifying existence. We become translucent—and we must, or our writing will fail to touch and to change. Isn't that what we all long to do? Don't we all want our pain to become another’s victory?

Amateurs write to let go of what is inside of them. They write because they have to get it out. Don't be an amateur. Don't be fearful of what your work is trying to change in you.

Real writers are like the Greeks. They study it. Furthermore, they grab their fear by the horns and never let it go.