Joanna, these are really timely thoughts for me. On one hand, I am writing through some material that makes me sit straighter, breathe faster, feel just a little uncomfortable, and I've wondered if those are signs I should keep going or wait. That advice to write it out, anyway, and decide later is good. Also, I'm with you: I do sense these are stories that are important for me to tell right now.
On the other hand, I've gotten my memoir-in-process back from beta readers, and the consensus is that I need to tell more engaging, compelling personal stories--and in some of those instances, I think I'm not ready to share those stories with the world. I don't know what that means for my memoir project. Do I redirect it toward the stories I'm ready to tell, and in that case change the focus? Or do I let it wait?
I really love this post. I've been feeling stuck the last couple of weeks and sitting with that "very real discomfort bordering on panic" that comes with self disclosure/exposure. The idea of writing what we need to write and separating the act of writing from the act of sharing feels really freeing. I'm still feeling into what in my body tells me I'm ready for the sharing part. I don't have much experience sharing my writing yet, but I think what I feel is a quickening, an urgency that I can only compare to the experience of being poised on the starting block before a swim race. There's a rush of adrenaline and then a deep stillness and then the sensation of the plunge.
Joanna, these are really timely thoughts for me. On one hand, I am writing through some material that makes me sit straighter, breathe faster, feel just a little uncomfortable, and I've wondered if those are signs I should keep going or wait. That advice to write it out, anyway, and decide later is good. Also, I'm with you: I do sense these are stories that are important for me to tell right now.
On the other hand, I've gotten my memoir-in-process back from beta readers, and the consensus is that I need to tell more engaging, compelling personal stories--and in some of those instances, I think I'm not ready to share those stories with the world. I don't know what that means for my memoir project. Do I redirect it toward the stories I'm ready to tell, and in that case change the focus? Or do I let it wait?
I really love this post. I've been feeling stuck the last couple of weeks and sitting with that "very real discomfort bordering on panic" that comes with self disclosure/exposure. The idea of writing what we need to write and separating the act of writing from the act of sharing feels really freeing. I'm still feeling into what in my body tells me I'm ready for the sharing part. I don't have much experience sharing my writing yet, but I think what I feel is a quickening, an urgency that I can only compare to the experience of being poised on the starting block before a swim race. There's a rush of adrenaline and then a deep stillness and then the sensation of the plunge.