Welcome to My Official Web Page!

Welcome to My Official Web Page!

Monday, May 17, 2010

When Your Heart Speaks, Take Good Notes


Last week, I had the opportunity to listen to the mother of Greg Mortensen, author of Three Cups of Tea. Dr. Mortensen came to our high school to talk about her son's work building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She had two main messages for the students.

1. They get to go to school.
2. When your heart speaks, take good notes.

I could go on about both these lessons, but as this is a writing blog, I'll stick to the latter. I think most people have a good story in them, but for whatever reason, most of them never write it down. There has to be a reason (other than the fact that we writers are mentally insane) that writers sit down and start writing. Maybe we listened to our hearts?

I had to get Hatshepsut's story out of my head. There are a couple novels out there about her and while they're both great, I would read them and think, "No, she wouldn't do that."

Because I think I know a Pharaoh that's been dead for 3,500 years better than anyone else. Snarf.

So I started writing. It was hard and I wanted to stop, but I couldn't. I'm in the same boat with Nitokerty now. It's like pulling all four wisdom teeth at once trying to get words on paper, but I have to get her story on paper or I'll soon be blogging from a padded room.

So that's my story. I'm driven to write by Egyptian Pharaohs who've been dead for millennia. What about you? What forces you to sit down and type? How do you finally get to the point where you can write THE END?