I wish...

What do I wish for as a writer? I wish to write words that provoke a response. Whether it's a personal essay or an informative article, I want to share a piece of myself and to touch my readers in some way. I want them to see what I write about. I want to draw pictures with my words without resorting to tired cliches. The whole "show not tell" thing.

What made me think of this? Well, last night when I checked on my baby before going to bed, I spent a long moment just taking her in. She slept with her arms straight over her head, as if she were swinging from a monkey bar. The sage green fleece grazing her chin swelled gently with each breath, and as I watched, my heart swelled right along with it. So many emotions--love, pride, protection--swept over me in that moment, and I wondered if I could ever write in such a way that a reader would feel them the way I did right then.

I suppose it takes practice. I'm just starting the book Writing for Story by Jon Franklin. Basically, it's about applying fiction techniques to nonfiction stories to make them more readable, interesting, and evocative. I think another term for this is creative nonfiction. I hope to learn how to pen my prose with more show than tell, because right now my prose is pretty dull and ordinary. I don't write in such a way that it stands out from the rest of the mundane crowd (present bootcamp company excluded, of course!). And if I want to earn a comfortable living as a writer, I need to be different enough to be heard above the din of mediocrity.

In so many ways, I overthink my writing, and that is when I tell more than show, among other things...but I think I'll leave that as a topic for another day! :-)