Loved it. Shared it. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Don’t sell yourself short on your label of self. It’s better to go by the labels we give ourselves than listen to the ones others try and tag us with! You have an abundant series of unique and wonderful experiences. Any one of them can be used for material to write something spectacular on. You’re just enjoying life too much and there’s nothing fkg wrong with that! Enjoy it, then write about it…other writers will envy you for it…
First, I want to tell you that your “Love Notes” are my monthly highlight, I look forward to them, they pick me up and sweep me away to wherever you are. I absolutly love the way your love notes give me ideas about how to write what I am writing, a book about my mother.
Second, here is a birthday gift. I think you should collect your Love Notes into a book, complete with your one picture each note. It would make a great travel book with self reflection and adventure, and you already wrote it. You might even add some of your favorite feedback and a map of your travels. You could have a second book out this year.
Third, I ask myself about why write. Initially it was to preserve my family stories, and mine for friends and relatives. My girlfriend’s father, a CIA spy said, he would not write his autobiography because “There are already too many books.” I agree with that, but want to do it anyway because mine are unique and will live on when I’m gone. Although I write for my family, I suspect some random strangers may also enjoy it, just as I enjoy your Love Notes.
My girlfriend asked me why I spend so much time writing about my mother, Polly, since I didn’t get along with her. I want to review what our lives were like and how her religion and my lack of it were so radically different we never reconsiled. I’ve learned a lot about her and me and her family writing about us. I will also preserve our family history in the process.
I feel the weight of my comitment to get this book out, but it is worth it to me. I’ll send you one when it is done early next year. Cheers and Happy Birthday. John
Thanks, John! The question of what to "do," if anything, with the love notes is one I've been mulling over for some time. Appreciate your encouragement! And all the best with your own writing -- looking forward to reading your book!
Thank you for the recommendation. That's so sweet of you. About this sense of identity linked with the word 'writer' when there isn't much happening on the writing front: do I relate! A few years ago I decided to stop calling myself a writer or having writerly dreams and wishes. I was just to knocked-out under the weight of single-parenting and getting the bills paid each month. I started weirdly hating on a writer who'd once been mean to me in public. She never has to do a day's work in her life and swans around in a dressing gown all day while drivers take her children to school and cooks cook for her and gardeners garden for her. When I started having those feelings, I knew that something was wrong and needed adjustment. So I stopped thinking about writing. It was weirdly liberating. SO. MUCH. PRESSURE. Off myself! It was wonderful. It was horrible before I decided, but once I decided it was great. And of course, when you're a writer, it doesn't go away: the impulse and need and curiosity and desire for it. So now it's back but I'm more comfortable with 'writer' and the writing is happening more, so I can have a slightly easier relationship with it than I had before. I hope you work something out for yourself (I look forward to reading about it), but in the mean time: happy nomading!
PS: off to do the jealousy quiz now! I feel I still have some demons to wash out of my system from that time I hated some poor other writer from a distance!
Thanks for sharing this -- I guess our relationship to writing and to ourselves as writers will always be on flux. I'm with you on wanting to feel more liberated -- less pressure is what I need, I think :)
Happy birthday! Enjoy! Forget your woes for a day.
Regarding your article this week: when is something "worth" it? We'd probably all agree it's not only making money. Sometimes it's worth it just for you to be doing something, trying something new, exploring. Have you read Rick Rubin's book "the creative act"? It was an eye opener for me.
Loved it. Shared it. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Don’t sell yourself short on your label of self. It’s better to go by the labels we give ourselves than listen to the ones others try and tag us with! You have an abundant series of unique and wonderful experiences. Any one of them can be used for material to write something spectacular on. You’re just enjoying life too much and there’s nothing fkg wrong with that! Enjoy it, then write about it…other writers will envy you for it…
Gracias Martin!
Happy birthday! And maybe you want to put writing away for a while...but you *did* write about not writing, so... ;)
Thank you! And yes -- somehow the love notes seem easier than writing fiction --
Dear Siel,
First, I want to tell you that your “Love Notes” are my monthly highlight, I look forward to them, they pick me up and sweep me away to wherever you are. I absolutly love the way your love notes give me ideas about how to write what I am writing, a book about my mother.
Second, here is a birthday gift. I think you should collect your Love Notes into a book, complete with your one picture each note. It would make a great travel book with self reflection and adventure, and you already wrote it. You might even add some of your favorite feedback and a map of your travels. You could have a second book out this year.
Third, I ask myself about why write. Initially it was to preserve my family stories, and mine for friends and relatives. My girlfriend’s father, a CIA spy said, he would not write his autobiography because “There are already too many books.” I agree with that, but want to do it anyway because mine are unique and will live on when I’m gone. Although I write for my family, I suspect some random strangers may also enjoy it, just as I enjoy your Love Notes.
My girlfriend asked me why I spend so much time writing about my mother, Polly, since I didn’t get along with her. I want to review what our lives were like and how her religion and my lack of it were so radically different we never reconsiled. I’ve learned a lot about her and me and her family writing about us. I will also preserve our family history in the process.
I feel the weight of my comitment to get this book out, but it is worth it to me. I’ll send you one when it is done early next year. Cheers and Happy Birthday. John
Thanks, John! The question of what to "do," if anything, with the love notes is one I've been mulling over for some time. Appreciate your encouragement! And all the best with your own writing -- looking forward to reading your book!
Your new book could be named, “Siel the Nomad: Love Notes from Around the World”.
Thank you for the recommendation. That's so sweet of you. About this sense of identity linked with the word 'writer' when there isn't much happening on the writing front: do I relate! A few years ago I decided to stop calling myself a writer or having writerly dreams and wishes. I was just to knocked-out under the weight of single-parenting and getting the bills paid each month. I started weirdly hating on a writer who'd once been mean to me in public. She never has to do a day's work in her life and swans around in a dressing gown all day while drivers take her children to school and cooks cook for her and gardeners garden for her. When I started having those feelings, I knew that something was wrong and needed adjustment. So I stopped thinking about writing. It was weirdly liberating. SO. MUCH. PRESSURE. Off myself! It was wonderful. It was horrible before I decided, but once I decided it was great. And of course, when you're a writer, it doesn't go away: the impulse and need and curiosity and desire for it. So now it's back but I'm more comfortable with 'writer' and the writing is happening more, so I can have a slightly easier relationship with it than I had before. I hope you work something out for yourself (I look forward to reading about it), but in the mean time: happy nomading!
PS: off to do the jealousy quiz now! I feel I still have some demons to wash out of my system from that time I hated some poor other writer from a distance!
Thanks for sharing this -- I guess our relationship to writing and to ourselves as writers will always be on flux. I'm with you on wanting to feel more liberated -- less pressure is what I need, I think :)
Happy Birthday!!
Thank you, Paige!
Happy Birthday, Siel.
Thanks, Kate!
Happy birthday! Enjoy! Forget your woes for a day.
Regarding your article this week: when is something "worth" it? We'd probably all agree it's not only making money. Sometimes it's worth it just for you to be doing something, trying something new, exploring. Have you read Rick Rubin's book "the creative act"? It was an eye opener for me.
I have not -- I'll pick it up! Thank you for the recommendation and for the bday wishes :)
Happy birthday, Siel!
Gracias Jim!