When I write a poem or a personal piece, my biggest concern is whether I am repeating myself. Will it become boring to the reader because I keep circling the same themes?
This thought can be damaging because the answer I often come up with is yes; I am repeating myself, and the reader will find it excruciatingly boring.
The other day, I was reading a book with my six-year-old. He started admiring the illustrations and the book so much that he said, ‘The person who did these illustrations must be extremely talented.’ He also commented that getting a finished book out in the public must be a lot of work.
I agreed and asked him if he wanted to create something like this himself. He said he would, but he didn’t feel quite as talented as the illustrator of the book he was currently reading. I assured him that I would help him, and we could work on our own book. He was excited but unsure.
That feeling is something I am very familiar with – being excited about a project but uncertain. Most of the time, the uncertainty is so high that I pass on the whole experience. While encouraging my son to try and see if we could come up with a book, I was thinking that I should always be this supportive of my own dreams and goals.
Having faith in yourself is the most crucial and necessary faith of all. Isn’t it?
Joining Esha and Shilpa for #SoulfulSunday this week.
A few years ago, if you are able to recall, we had a similar discussion in one of the 2 facebook blogging groups we were part of. It was about feeling repititive in our views and contexts in our writing and what came out of that discussion was this is bound to happen because each one of us is a certain type of person with certain type of values and outlook. As long as we remain authentic in our expression, we will repeat ourselves over and over. Now the question is – will you lose all your readers by being, as you say, (excruciatingly) boring? My answer is going to be ‘No’.
Getting excited about something and at the same time feeling unsure about accomplishing it is the thing all of us have expreienced. Your little one and you are not alone in this.
I have thought about this often too. Specially as a parent blogger I wonder if the same old children’s stories would get repetitive and boring. I have often felt a twinge of sympathy about burdening my readers with the same old worries and stresses. But then (apart from a few odd pieces of fiction) this is what remains top of the mind for me so this is what will come out most naturally from my pen. That’s just how it is.
On a similar note I made small story books with H and N when they were younger. The illustrations were a mix of their drawings and photographs (because they were the protagonists of their stories). It was fun.