Writing has Given Me a Life

By Shawn Smucker

I am in bed and I decide to warn him against it, to encourage writing as a hobby but not as a passion, not as a means for making a life.

Yes, that’s what I’ll tell him.

I walk down the stairs and the boards are creaking but he has his earbuds in so I stand at the bottom of the stairs and consider the best way to break this news to him, that writing is no way to spend your days. I watch him as he wrestles with this character or that scene or this conflict. I recognize the hum of a new idea, the speed of his fingers on the keys, the aura of confidence that glows like his computer screen.

And I can’t move towards him, I can’t warn him away from this writing thing, because seeing it from the outside, seeing him writing, I am reminded of all the things that writing has given me. The relief from inner turmoil. An outlet for anger or love or hate or confusion or longing.

A life. That’s what it is. Writing has given me a life.

I do not turn around, but I take one step back up the steps, still facing my son. And another. And another. He catches my movement in the corner of his eye. He pulls one earbud out and looks at me expectantly, as if I have something to tell him.

“Yeah, Dad?”

But I wave him off.

“Nothing, buddy. Keep writing.”

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Shawn Smucker is the author of the young adult novels The Day the Angels Fell and The Edge of Over There, as well as the memoir Once We Were Strangers. He lives with his wife and six children in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. You can find him online at www.shawnsmucker.com

The Writing Path

By Shawn Smucker

There is something I can count on now, when the lights are out and the house is still and the city outside my window is quieting. I know that if I get out of bed and creep through the shadows, walk down the stairs, and peer into the living room, my son will be hunched over his laptop, biting his lip, scowling to himself, cracking his fingers, and writing. He has done a thing that has been wonderful to witness: at an early age he fell in love with books, and then he fell in love with stories, and then, before I knew it, he turned into a writer.

There are worse things your son can turn into. For example, he could want to be a builder who constructs strip malls in the Amazon rain forest, or create those loud toys for children that don’t have an on-off switch. He could turn into the kind of person who puts the toilet paper roll on the wrong way or designs the kind of robots that will one day take over the world. But he is none of those things. He is a writer. And that is a good thing.

Right?

I mean, there are easier ways to live a life. “Get a job,” I could say, “a good paying job that has benefits and health insurance. Always insist on the health insurance.” Or I could list the benefits of submerging in corporate America, with its six-figure executive paychecks and winner-winner-chicken-dinner mentality. Success there seems so easy to measure.

The truth is, the writing path is one of heartbreak and insecurity. It is a winding, tortuous route that can leave you questioning not only yourself but every decision you have ever made in life. It is the path of rejection and disappointment, one that never seems to have a destination.

Writing always asks more of us. If you are going to write, you have to give more of yourself than you ever imagined more of yourself than you thought even existed.

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Shawn Smucker is the author of the young adult novels The Day the Angels Fell and The Edge of Over There, as well as the memoir Once We Were Strangers. He lives with his wife and six children in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. You can find him online at www.shawnsmucker.com

The Shortest How-to Guide for Writing Your Novel’s First Draft

By Shawn Smucker, Author of The Edge of Over There

Breathe in. Breathe out. Prepare yourself mentally and emotionally – you are about to embark on a major undertaking, a creative endeavor that millions of people begin but never finish.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Set a daily or weekly word count target, and write every day, or every other day, but do not let too much time pass or the trail will grow cold and when you return to it you’ll have trouble picking up the scent. Come back to the work faithfully, and your imagination will become faithful to you.

And when you have the scent, keep moving forward – do not get caught in the trap of revising what you have already written. Have you ever seen a dog chase its own tail? If something must be changed, make a note, resolve to address it later, during the second draft, and then keep moving forward.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

There will come a day when you are ready to quit, or delete half of what you’ve written, or take up an entirely new idea, abandoning your current story. Do your best to ignore these urges, because the sole purpose of these voices is to keep you from finishing well. That should be your only concern right now: finishing well. Not what you will do in the second draft. Not how you will arrange the plot of your next project. Not what your mother will think of the character that resembles her. Only focus on finishing well.

Take comfort in the fact that this is not your best writing, or the best way to organize the story, or a perfect portrayal of your characters. No one will ever have to read what you are currently writing. Free yourself from the burden of writing something that will change the world. Simply get it down as best you can, following the trail where it leads you.

At the halfway mark, you might feel as though you’ll never finish. This is because the negative voices are starting to worry that you actually might finish, and they’re trying to discourage you. Rejoice when these voices flare up! Their presence means you’re nearly there! Laugh at them. Treat yourself to something nice and keep writing.

When you finish that first draft, sit with it for a while in silence, saying nothing, writing nothing. Sit and look at it where it resides, on your screen or on paper, and realize you have done something wonderful, something remarkable, something worthwhile. You have finished writing a novel.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Now, get ready to revise.

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Shawn Smucker is the author of The Day the Angels Fell and The Edge of Over There. He lives with his wife and six children in the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. You can find him online at www.shawnsmucker.com, where you can also sign up for his newsletter in order to find out when and where the Tree of Life will turn up next.