Why I Write

This week, I’m in a whirlwind of activity as I prepare for my Soulful Proprietor Retreat. Taking some time from planning details to simply write gives my brain another thing to focus on, which is essential because I love to get bogged down in minutiae (aka: procrastination by fretting over technicalities). Plus, I was tagged for this post by Amelia Quint of The Midheaven a few weeks back, so it’s time to spill it.

What am I working on?

Other than the retreat:

A book.

A workshop for next year’s Reader’s Studio.

A top secret project that I cannot speak of yet.

An ebook for a series of guides for Professional Mystics.

How does my writing differ from others in its genre?

I’m not sure how to answer that. My peers write beautifully. I’m surrounded by scholarly and poetic colleagues. I’ve always been in awe of the many mega-tarot-talents that write such amazing, informative stuff. So me? How am I different? I’m practical and contemporary with a hip hop urban flair. Think Ralph Nader meets Lil Wayne.

I am not just a one trick tarot pony. I write on many subjects from tarot techniques to business to humorous anecdotes about my life (with lots of cat pictures!). I try to be helpful with a side of entertainment.

Why do I write?

I grew up in an oppressive home in the boondocks where mundane was the gold standard and anything out of the ordinary, especially a strange little girl that preferred chemistry sets and fantasizing about rock stars to playing with dolls, was considered a freak that must be subdued into compliance.

I’ve been told to be quiet and be a good girl.

I’ve been told my opinion was too strong – girls shouldn’t express themselves with that much ferocity (“be nice”).

I’ve been told that my art was “too adult” when I was a teenager (“tame it down”).

I’ve been told my work was “too weird” and “no one would pay for that.” (I was called weird for as long as I remember and it was never meant in an affectionate way. It was meant to try to shame me into conforming to a rural status quo that I never quite fit nor cared about.)

I was punished for writing my not-so-nice thoughts in my diary.

I stopped writing for a long, long time.

And then I started a blog out of curiosity and wondered…what would I have to say and could I say it?

I write because I’m a communicator (Gemini!).

I write to share information.

I write to teach.

I write because I care about my clients and my peers.

I write to HELP.

I write because I can’t help it.

I write because I must express myself no matter what.

I write because putting words onto paper feels cathartic.

I write for all little girls that were told to be quiet, be nice, say nothing, wear pink, play with dolls, be normal, don’t upset the boys, good girls don’t do that, try to fit in, shhh…….

I write because I’m rebellious.

I write because it’s a feminist act.

I write because I dare.

How I write

My writing is as messy as my cooking (my other passion). It’s all over the place and I get dirty doing it. It begins with notes furiously scribbled on any piece of paper I can get my paws on.

It may be a few lines, a flash of inspiration scrawled into my idea journal, a page of thoughts. Words dance around the page and are often crossed out and rewritten. My notebooks are a hot mess that resemble some sort of foreign gobbledygook. (My penmanship used to be impeccable but now, thanks to the computer, it’s crap.) From there, I start outlining my post/ebook/essays/etc onto a Pages document on the computer. And then…I start.

Like the way I read tarot, it arrives in a stream of consciousness. It spills out in a torrent like an out of control ticker tape. It’s wild and fearless.

And then, I need to go back and clean that mess up. Punctuation and grammar are not my strong suits (for my ebooks I use a copy editor – but for my blogs, Sorry Charllie, you’ll probably find more than one typo and some mighty shaky grammar at times). I do my best to make my nonsense make sense.

I put it out into the world with a little prayer that somewhere, somehow, one person may find my work helpful, comforting, funny, or informative. I turn it over to the Universe and then get on to my next piece. There’s always another one waiting.

So who do I pass the baton to? I want to know why these smarty pants write:

Lisa Walker England

Grace Quantock

Victoria Prozan

Do share, ladies. I am all ears. (PS I am a much better listener than writer. I love hearing everyone else’s stories.)

Blessings,

Theresa