On Writing: A Mini-Lecture

Style isn't how you write.
It's how you do not write like anyone else.

In order to grow as a writer,
you've got to be willing to risk it all every time you sit down to write.
You've got to be open and brave and curious.

We're all born poets.
We all enjoy the sounds of language.
We're all born with the universal need to sound our “barbaric yawps
over the roofs of the world.”

Poetry is a natural part of our lives.
It's not something we have to memorize and recite in front of the class.

Losing ourselves in a poem
is one of the best ways of finding out who we are.

The act of writing brings us to that point of discovery,
of discovering on the page something we didn't know we knew
until we wrote it.

Don't let reality cloud your imagination.
Look up at the sky and find once again
those long-tailed dragons and sailing ships.

Wake up to the world as though you are seeing it for the first time.
Find the wonder.
Question the way things are.
Imagine new choices.
Write from the child in you.

You don't need a degree to be a writer.
It doesn't take teachers or textbooks to show you how.
One learns how to write by writing.
There is no other way.

Style isn't how you write.
It's how you do not write like anyone else.


©2009 Charles Ghigna