Today’s post is written by guest writer, Susannah Bianchi. Check out her slightly-on-slant essays and novels at athingirl.com.

The Right To Write

The Right to Write is my favorite go-to writing book by esteemed author, Julia Cameron. Though I have others…Bird By Bird, by Anne Lamott, Stephen King’s On Writing, hers is the one I keep on my bedside table.

I find opening to a random page before shutting my eyes helpful, as quite often we write in our dreams awaking with fresh thoughts and insights.

For a long time I kept my prose secret, thinking I had no right to call myself a writer since, I was an amateur after all.

Come to find out, it’s sired from the Latin word, amare meaning to love, which really set me straight. What’s better than having something you love to do, doing it simply for that reason?

That note changed my prospective, allowing me to see how privileged it is to be a fan of the written word.

We are all writers deep down, since we do have something to say. That’s why journaling is a great place to begin since, it’s just you and the page, no intruders allowed. It’s also where seeds are planted that could turn into a novel or short story, poem or essay. A phrase will jump off the page circling your mind tapping into your thoughts like a friendly house guest you didn’t expect.

And I can say from experience, while writing and creating we are the happiest. That’s the thing about art. It’s personal. It’s ours and no one else’s. It meets us where we are transporting our imaginations to unknown places.

Another important discovery is reading, writing’s closest friend enhancing our creative juices without us even knowing it.

Suddenly your vocabulary increases, your love of words now realized.

Who knew?

I will leave you with a story a high school teacher had shared with me about Stephen King.

He was invited to speak to the students, an invitation he readily embraced. When he took the stage in worn jeans, a button-down and navy blazer, sneaks on his feet, the first thing he did was take a dogeared paperback from his back pocket.

He held it up, waved it like a flag and said…

You want to write, you have to read!

Hear Hear!  Best advice ever.

Happy Writing, and let us all meet on the page.  🙂

Susannah Bianchi

If you have any questions about writing or other topics you want me to talk about in Writing Corner, just send me an email at info@greenwalledtreehouse.com.