The Reinvention of A Writer

Living a Life of Writing just took on a whole new meaning- it takes courage to build, and even more courage to seek a major improvement on something that works well.  The past two years have been a wild ride for me as well- both as a writer and as a person.

A writing mentor of mine once said, at some point if you want to publish a better book you’re going to have to reinvent yourself, and you’ll do it only if you have the courage and strength to do so.  Courage is such a grey area for me, I think of it as a negative and I should take it as a positive.

I doubted his words, and I didn’t think of the power of how much reinvention can do for you as a writer.

Why would I write about reinvention if there isn’t anything I need to change?

I took my cue from a band I’ve always enjoyed listening to- and have gone to see live- AC/DC.  They have an incredible story behind their success, and unlike most bands, they keep rebuilding only to be better. They are icons and well respected for a reason, they have fun and rock hard.  They’ve had some incredible luck on their side- but some talented people joined them at the right time.

What does this have to do with writing?  If you want to become a better writer, you have to learn from your mistakes, and then find the person- or the idea- which will force you beyond your comfort zone, and force a change you will eventually see as the tipping point in your writing career.  It’s painful, sometimes embarrassing, always enlightening.

If you’re lucky it makes you stronger because it was painful, and because you pushed your limits.

Reinvention as a writer is not about you- it’s about how you can be better for your reader.  It’s about taking what readers are and are not, telling you and fixing it.  It’s a major change in your life, and in your writing style.  It will only push you and you have to be strong enough to face it.

Living a Life of Writing needed reinvention.  It needed to be more about what writers need and not what we felt they needed.  After all, ‘living’ is a part of writing.  I went back as far as I could go and realized I only hit my stride after I was more honest, and less worried about what people thought in their comments.

Some have a grain of truth to them, but others are simply there to force me out of my comfort zone. To prove them wrong, and to prove I can be better.

It took a long while for me to sit down and build a goal as to how to reinvent myself.  Thankfully, this was the time when I took an ‘internet break’ and looked at some of my writing, not only on the blog, but in general.  I understood the need to push past my limits and reinvent myself.  I wanted to change.

The question I asked was: why should I re-invent myself?

It’s not an easy question to answer.  Most people don’t want to take the time or make the effort to grow and they will tend to answer – ‘because I have to.’

No, you don’t have to do anything.

I didn’t have to reinvent myself because I have to, but because I want to.  Change is the only way to becoming a better writer, blogger, and all around person.  It’s because without some reflection on my part, my writing won’t grow and it won’t get better, and my critics will have reason to argue that I’ve not matured as a writer. Or even looked the part of a good writer. The major key to success is finding the person who pushes your limits, and then demands more.

With their help, my writing will improve.  However, this being said, at some point you will have to demand more of yourself, as a person and a writer.  I have to face my greatest challenge being open and being more of a writer than I was.

A major change is not for the writer who is focused on ‘what works’, it is for a writer who is focused on what can be fantastic, and then pushes themselves to go beyond this point.  The point of no return, you can’t be what you were and still be happy, and the only means of being happy is jumping right in again and finding out what writing, and blogging not mean to you.