Writers are interesting beings. I laugh but I'm one of them. Writers are constantly dancing through feelings of inability to write, frustration with our characters and a burst of ideas. If only we could just sit down and write. Writers have their corners, their favourite liquids, their time of day, their muses and it is rarely the same for everyone. I realised that I actually just like to hear the kettle boil or have the smell of coffee around me without having to drink any liquid in order to get my thoughts all lined up. It's like a ritual for my brain. Jackee Batanda is one writer who revealed to me some other rituals that a writer must have.
Now, as I write about Jackee, I can't help but hope all my grammar is correct and the comma's are in their rightful places. I feel her angel glaring down over my shoulder scrutinising my every word. But...I'll ignore it. :) haha. Jackee is not tough but she is thorough in making sure your writing communicates exactly what you meant it to communicate. It's a healthy kind of rigid. It removes the flowery words and enables the writer to be succinct clear and clever. But oh...how i love those flowery sentences that go on for ages about the moon and it's smooth edges and yada yada yada. It's romantic. Jackee is like - Cut all that.
Anyhoo! So one writer ritual that Jackee spoke to me about at her writers retreat on a far away island with the waves crashing against white sands and the birds chirping on their nests. She said, "if you want to be the best writers, you have to read all the best writers. If you want to win the writing awards, you have to read all the winning pieces". Her curls bounced backwards and forward as she acknowledged that, that is what she had done. I immediately internally left my serene surrounding and and self examined. How many winning authors had I read? How many best sellers were in my library? If I am to chase anything at all, I might as well chase the best. Not the one running beside me. Not the one just in front of me. No. Chase the one who 'been there done that!' They are not even racing any more.
Jackee Batanda is great at taking writers, want to be writers, maybe writers, some day writers, or even non writers to luxurious beaches and allowing them to just imagine they are the best in the world and for five days chase that vision of themselves. No car fumes, no phone calls, no babies crying, no dishes to wash, no "i'm too tired" excuses. It's you against yourself because at least everything else is routing for you. And when you're given this opportunity to be with yourself and consider those who have gone before you and won then you have no choice but to raise your own bar and give it all you have.
Thank you Jackee for the Challenge.
Check out her website below:
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