Write with Kare

I used to imagine being a writer when I was a child, because I loved to read stories and I wanted to contribute mine. I related to the really raw stories about kids struggling to survive, caring for themselves and perhaps their families, and using their tenacity to “make it”. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Jane Eyre and Ron Suskind’s A Hope in the Unseen were three childhood favorites. These stories were a blueprint to my life. They helped me shape a vision for my future and create a pathway to achieving financial stability.

I went through some hard things as a kid, like a few months in a foster home and regular stints of food insecurity. Whenever something particularly harrowing happened to me, I would think “I’m going to put that in my memoir”. It was a way to find some semblance of value in my experiences.

For most of my life, I wanted to be a writer, but I didn’t understand how to make a career of it. I still don’t.

All these years later, I understand that writing is not something you be. It’s something you do. I largely abandoned it after college. I did some songwriting, was published in an indie mag, and wrote a few articles for a clothing brand. But that was a while ago. In the past few years, I’ve been trying to return to the practice and do writing.

One barrier to writing was my perception that I needed my mountain cottage or a posh view of the city in order to write. I needed the right computer or the perfect ballpoint pen. I needed several uninterrupted hours at a bar with an ice cold martini in hand. It took a while to have those delusions shattered. It helped to be bored and bedridden with a fresh baby to get me back into writing. It can be pretty boring in those first few months. Lots of sitting around and watching her hit milestones and then nap most of the day.

Why do I share this? Because if you are waiting to become a writer, you never will. You are a writer when you are writing. Writing is something you do. So do it. Start with your thumb and your phone. Write some poems on your lunch break or on the toilet or while you’re waiting for paint to dry. Do some

1. Write short short peieces whenever and wherever: poems or flash fiction on your phone. This is something you can do often and anywhere. While you are on the toilet, on break from work, or watching your infant sleep.
2. Have a write night! Have a social event where you and some friends do some writing together and then share it. There are books and resources that have writing prompts available. My coworker and I both love writing and we are working through a book together.
3. Get some writing partners: I share my writing with other writers. Be comfortable with the knowledge that the work may suck. Writing isn’t easy, but its best to get the support and advice from others. Writing is meant to be read. Let your people read it.
4. Do it right now. I’m not always feeling it. Last time I worked on my novel, I kept thinking “these ideas are dumb,” and then deleting. But then I set a timer and said “no deleting for 10 minutes”. I got through some challenging details and moved on to write some stuff that I’m actually proud of. I can go back and make the necessary edits and get some advice from my writing partners. Sometimes I’m on my game, and other times I just need to do it.