Is There a Story to Tell?
“Is this a photo journal? Or is there a story to tell here?” I was at Mimi’s Café with Helen Chang, a writing coach. She was looking at me with amused intensity. The question created internal conflict because I was sure I was supposed to do a photo journal of The Elixir Project but … there really was quite a story behind all the photos.
“There is a story to tell,” I finally answered. Immediately, my hands felt sweaty, and my heart rate went up. My breathing was quicker and shallower. If I look back and describe what was going on in my mind at that moment, it would have been a hurricane. A category 9 on the Beaufort scale, complete with airborne buildings and trees. If there was a story to tell I would have to write it, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I would be exposed. And who was I to write a book? And who would even want to read another boat book? My story was not unique at all, just simple and boring. But I did get to sail across the Pacific Ocean in the end.
I know now that this is what happens to a lot of writers. Some people just know they are writers from an early age, that is all they want to do. These folks are rare in my experience. Most of us get nudged from the inside, from our souls, to start writing. My mind argued with this nudge for years: I don’t know how. I don’t have anything to say. Where do I start?
And then the mind games start. Well, just start writing, say anything you feel like saying and it doesn’t matter anyways because no one will ever see this. Sound familiar?
Weeks before, with a photo journal in progress, I had Googled writers’ guilds in desperation because I had no idea what to do with my pages. How do you publish? How do you find a printer? It was a world I knew nothing about. San Diego Writers’ Ink listed Helen Chang’s class on ‘Create Your Book Vision.’ Sunday, May 22, 2016. My introduction to San Diego Writers, Ink.
Helen invited me to dinner after meeting in her class. Drawing out the Hero’s Journey on a napkin, she told me about Marni Friedman’s Memoir Class. While it had already started, she was pretty sure Marni would welcome another writer. Thank you, Helen!
