A young writer penned these words:
“I haven’t written for a few days, because I wanted first of all to think about my diary. It’s an odd idea for someone like me to keep a diary; not only because I have never done so before, but because it seems to me that neither I—nor for that matter anyone else—will be interested in the unbosomings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl. Still, what does that matter? I want to write, but more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart”
Amazing and deep words from someone so young.
Just about every writing coach or mentor begin their advice to new and experienced writers with these words, “Write something every day.”
This is why many of the best writers of books over the last couple centuries worked as newspaper or periodical journalists. They needed to write every day and writing became as natural as breathing, so when the time came to write a book, the process came relatively easy to them. They could focus on the story and the actual message in their book since the process of writing, putting coherent words and sentences together with some creative style came second nature.
The more frequently you do something, the easier it becomes.
I consistently urge authors to blog regularly and post original content in their social media on a regular basis, as if it is a periodical with a deadline. The reason is to establish your voice as it relates to your message platform, the driving theme, which undergirds every author’s work.
But there is another reason. The simple act of writing something on a regular basis will exercise the writing-muscles. Certainly, any number of Christian teachers will encourage people to journal their thoughts as a way to capture their spiritual journey so when they look back, their own words will remind them how God led them.
There’s nothing like reading your own words to make something more real to you.
Blogging regularly into your author social media platform doesn’t replace the personal journaling, but it accomplishes the same thing, showing a progression of thought to your readers, binding them closer to you as they journey with you.
Blogging and posting is also a discipline, which will crystallize your faith and message. It becomes easier the more you do it. And you never know where it might lead.
There is a specific reason for this post today. Yesterday, June 12 marked the 75th anniversary of a simple gift from a father to a daughter.
Otto Frank gave his daughter Anne a blank autograph book for her thirteenth birthday. She used it as a diary in the middle of a world war. The quote at the beginning of this post is from this young girl amidst Nazi occupation.
She died before her sixteenth birthday in early 1945 at the Bergen-Belsen Nazi death camp, just weeks before the Allies liberated it.
A family friend, Miep Gies, kept the diary safe and gave it to Anne’s father Otto after the war. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl was published in 1952 and translated into dozens of languages and has been read worldwide for over six and a half decades.
Go ahead; write something every day…you never know who might read it.
