Your Monday mote

Sprinkling stardust on your week

Let’s start with a few words from the brilliant Neil Gaiman.

“Write your story as it needs to be written. Write it ­honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.”

Wise words, Neil, wise words.

When I was younger I thought I was going to be the next Isabel Allende.

Okay, you can stop laughing now.

I read her novel Eva Luna in my early twenties, when I was recovering from a major surgery. It took me away from real life when I desperately needed the respite. Immediately propelled into a world of dizzying love, folklore and spirituality, I fell in love with her writing.

“Aha!” I exclaimed, inwardly - and possibly outwardly. “This is what I want to write!”

Enthralled, I set out to write my own Eva Luna.

And of course, I failed.

The story I laboured over for months - no, years - was a load of wafty old nonsense that went nowhere and did nothing. It was so bad that when I read it back now, I laugh like the proverbial drain.

Stubbornly, it took me far too long realise that I was trying to copy a style and not write the stories I wanted to write, and in the way I wanted to write them.

What can I say? I was young and impressionable. It took a few more years of filling notebooks and grappling with ideas and themes before I hit my groove. But only after writing a few more duds.

So I implore you, listen to yourself and trust your instincts. The world needs a you, and not another cheap knock-off of someone else.

Be inspired by others, yes, but put your blinkers on and write your stories in your own voice, and in a way that only you can.

Have a great week!

Lisa

Why mote? It’s my shorthand for motivation. More pertinently, in olde English, a mote means a speck or particle, and that’s what this post offers every Monday; a particle of inspiration to set you on your writing journey this week.

Eva Luna, a book I didn’t write