Each of us as writers digs deep inside of ourselves to discover what really moves us deeply and resonates with our soul.

Much like a daily exercise of physical walking — as writers we walk across the bridge of our imagination.

By diving deep into our imagination daily, we are seeking the muse that wants to deliver to us… the story that is already in seed form inside of us.

Watch the video below or scroll down to keep reading how you can uncover your strand of gold as a writer…

I feel like the story is inside us — and is just wanting for us to tell it.

See first with your mind’s eye — and then as you write the story you are causing the tangible form of your book to materialize and become very real.

Digging deeper into our muse — and pulling the story out of ourselves — means we need to be authentic and real as we show up to the page.

All our our scars, hurts, pain, our fears, losses and triumphs, and love… is really where your greatest writing will be uncovered.

 

When we use the words: Creative Self-expression — what that really means is that our creative writing self flows from the “self” into expression.

If you real and authentic self is still hidden from view — you can begin to get to know your truest self through writing.

You might be worried that your own life isn’t very interesting so how could you take inspiration from your ordinary life?

But, I honestly believe that as you write down what inspires you and as you remember stories from your childhood and teenage years… that you will begin to discover more of who you are — which in turn will inform your writing.

Writing down facts and your reaction to them, will help you begin to get clear on your version of who you truly are — and therefore what inspires you as a writer.

For example, I have looked back at my own childhood — as the youngest child of 11 children growing up on a farm in northern British Columbia.

The things that stand out most for me, is how much time I spent (after chores were done) either by myself thinking or playing with my animal friends. I loved my animals. Whether it was dogs, cats, horses — even goats and little lambs when we had them. We had pigs and cows too … but I never had as much affection for them as the other animals. Lol 😉

The other thing that stands out from my childhood, is the adventures we had — whether it was learning to ride the motorbike for the first time and my feet couldn’t even touch the ground when I sat on the seat, or chasing the bull who tried to come after me when me and my dog were bringing the cows home to be milked. Or skating on the creek in the wintertime — even though my sister fell through the ice the one time… but we got her out.

I had lots of fear about things as a child — fear of the dark or fear of meeting up with wild animals, etc.

Lots of adventure.

However the other thing that stands out for me, is my longing for acceptance and belonging.

When I look at the books I’ve written, I cans see all these things pop up in different books.
Adventure — my first two historical romance books are filled to the brim with adventure — very fast paced as the heroine is being chased by the terrorist group the Black Hand.

All those fears came alive for me as I wrote those two books.

However in my pen name sweet romance books, over and over again I write about a Heroine who is longing for acceptance, belonging and love. And in most of the stories — they are small town romances with the character owning a dog or cat or something.

As I’m writing this first book in my middle grade fiction adventure series — a story that is inspired by my family and my childhood — I am beginning to see childhood fears and longing for acceptance and belonging — popping up unexpectedly in my Heroine — the nine year old orphan girl Kanata.

I want to encourage you to write down a few facts from your childhood memories.
THe reason for doing this, is it will help to unearth your real voice — because often what emerges from this exercise is a true understanding of your writing of originality — specifically about what’s true for you.

Basically you will get a clearer picture of what is your writers’ Strand of gold.

When we can unearth the memories inside of us, we can gain even greater access to a broader spectrum of creativity and these memories become inspiration and motivates us to begin to create.

In the book, The Vein of Gold by Julia Cameron, she shares of a time when she learned from film director, the late Martin Ritt — who directed Paul Newman in Hud and Cicely Tyson in Sounder.

Martin Ritt gave his thoughts on actors and finding their brilliance. He said: “All actors have a certain territory, a certain range, they were born to play. If you cast an actor within that vein he will always give you a brilliant performance. Of course, you can always cast an actor outside his vein of gold. If you do, the actor can use craft and technique to give you a very fine performance, but never a performance as brilliant as when he is working in his vein of gold.”

We can see that with actress Meryl Streep when she starred in the movie Out of Africa. We can also see that actors who shine with comedy like Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber.

I believe principle of uncovering your strand of gold applies to writers just as it does to actors.

Write about things that inspire you — that you care about and that you think about … it’s important to write about those things that you really interested in not just what you would write about.

Look for your own strand or being of gold.

Take a look at what movies or books you are inspired to watch or read right now.
Chances are you’ll discover that those movies or books are in some way related to your own story.

A great starting place is going back to some of your childhood memories as this will inspire your true expression of who you are.

Then you will know you own strand of gold and will have a greater level of true authenticity as you come to the page to write 🙂