In this Sunday Series, you’ll meet writers new and seasoned as they share what inspires them to put #PenToPaper. This week, welcome Ramona Payne, who writes about nurturing creativity with practice, exploration, and commitment.
Photo by Kat Stokes on Unsplash
My writing starts with an experience, a question, and sometimes an awakening. From there I try to sort out why a particular story takes hold, what it means for me. I hope that by writing I can figure it out and start a conversation with others.
Although I have loved writing since I was a child, it took years before I called myself a writer. Saying you are a writer elicits so many questions. Some are easier, such as, “What do you write?” When I respond to this question, I explain my love for the essay form and then say my favorite genre is creative nonfiction. That term usually requires explanation—isn’t all writing creative?— but then I tell them I use the tools of the novelist while telling a true story. This seems to help them understand, and I can point to examples, such as essays, books, or magazine pieces that fall under this genre.
Then comes the inevitable second question “So have you written a book yet, are you published?” Even though my answer to that question is “Yes,” I had to learn that being published, the frequency of it or the recognition it can bring, cannot be my reason for writing. If I have labored over a work, it is often my intent to send it out, to share it with others. But first, I have to get over imagining the book cover, the catchy title, and book tours and reading. I am left with only one course of action— I have to sit down and actually put the words on paper. All of those imaginings are great for inspiration and ideation, but until I place the words on the page, then wrestle, tease or caress them until they are properly positioned, it’s all make-believe.
Writing forces me to deal with my desire for perfection. Every time I sit down at my desk to begin a new piece, I wonder how it is going to turn out, or if will it be any good. But the best part of writing is I give myself permission to just let the words come, whether they are in a rush so swift I cannot contain them, or if they come as a measly drip, drip, one tentative word at a time. At the end of the time spent writing, I always am slightly amazed at myself, not because the writing is so incredible, because it is not most of the time, certainly not right away. I am amazed because I sat down with the intention to write and I did it. I kept a commitment to myself, using a gift that I let languish for years because I was busy doing other stuff. I used to wish I was like those people who discovered their vocation early in life, and had started earlier on this writing life. I made peace with that years ago, now that I have lived long enough to have rich and varied experiences, and enough years have passed to give me perspective and insight about what I have gone through.
I believe everyone is an artist of some sort. Creativity has to be nurtured, but it must also be explored. This exploration takes place when we become more aware of the diversity of thought, experience, style, and culture around us. Without this awareness of diversity in artistic expression, a child is told their picture “doesn’t look quite right,” and believes it. A writer tells a story, and because it is so foreign to your worldview, you dismiss it, instead of looking for the kernel of truth, insight, or even humor that might be present.
I go to hear other authors read, visit museums, poke around in small shops, travel, always searching for other ways to look at and feel the world. We are all artists of some sort, and to the question, “How do I get paid for it?” my advice is not to wait to figure out how to make money at writing or any art. Practice, explore get better, and then consider if this craft is something you love enough to do whether it feeds you or not. My life is richer for my writing and that is why I write.
RAMONA M. PAYNE is a writer and author and her work has appeared in essay collections, magazines, and online. She completed the Creative Writing program at The University of Chicago Graham School, has a liberal arts degree from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from Duke University. She supports local theatre, practices Pilates, and leads her expressive writing workshop, Write.Pause.Reflect.
Currently living between Cincinnati and northern Indiana, she is working on an essay collection. Find her at ramonapayne.com and follow her on Instagram @writepausereflect or Twitter @RamonaPayne1.