Stripper Talk

Regardless of all the bitching some of us are doing about blogging and writing in general, it seems that the more we do it, the easier the process is getting. Am I alone in thinking this? Here we are at week six and I’m sure many of us are more comfortable facing our blogs than we used to be. I’m not talking about the deciding on what to write. That can still be a challenge. But once we have something in mind it should be simple (simpler?) for us to open a Word document and fill that white space. Okay sometimes it’s not. Sometimes I feel myself holding back and playing it safe. Sometimes I’m more concerned with what the reader will think of me rather than what they will think about what I’ve written. That’s ego isn’t it? Should ego be a part of the writing process? A trip to the bookcase and a visit to Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones helped shed some light.

[page 36] Let go of everything when you write, and try at a simple beginning with simple words to express what you have inside. It won't begin smoothly. Allow yourself to be awkward. You are stripping yourself. You are exposing your life, not how your ego would like to see you represented, but how you are as a human being.

Serious words for all of us to reflect on perhaps. Or do you think it’s a load of bunk? Where should we put our ego when we are writing? Is ego such an intrinsic part of us that it comes through no matter how we try to strip ourselves of it?