Writing – A Secret (Best Not Kept)

This is a guest post by William Rogan. Willis a thirtysomething guy (but not for much longer) with a love of writing. Here is his bio for your enjoyment: “I am a father to the Dynamic Duo(son & daughter) and lucky to have the most wonderful lady in the world joining me on my journey.  I love to travel, read, write and relax.  I’m an ex- Navy Officer and interestingly as a child suffered from chronic seasickness (but it didn’t worry me when I was at sea with the Navy).  I want my children to develop a love for the written word, because as I always say to my daughter, you are never lonely when you have a good book to keep you company.” You can visit Will @ Will will Write to learn more about him.

Have you ever sat in a workplace meeting or being in a conversation and been desperate to say something but the words never actually made their way out of your mouth and into the open?

I’m not talking about the things that you might be dying to say but will only regret once they are ‘out there’, like “when will this guy ever shut up?” or “…this clown really has no idea, what a $%&*#…” No, I mean something that is illuminating and perfectly encapsulates the topic under discussion but for one reason or another you never got to articulate it. This may have been because you weren’t called upon to talk, you were too worried about what others may think or you really just couldn’t be bothered. For whatever reason, it’s an opportunity missed and one that may never come up again.

Writing is, or at least was, just like that for me. Some days I would have just loved to jump up on my ergonomically friendly desk, but being careful not to knock over my cup of company supplied coffee like beverage and trample all over my company supplied phone and stationery, and yell out at the top of my voice “My name is Will and I love to write…” I can just picture it now. The Engineers will be pretending they can’t see me, the Accountants will be hiding under their desks and the IT team will be pulling out all manner of mobile phones and capturing my rant so they can be the first to put it on YouTube.

But why should anyone be surprised? Surely the others in my office must know that in addition to being able to write absolute killer contract and tender evaluation letters I can also turn a phrase or two on any number of subjects… or do they? Mmmmm, come to think of it, probably not and why is that? Well for a start I’ve never really told them of my love of the written word. For me then I guess, writing is ‘my little secret’ it is, apart from spending time with my family, what I love most to do with my spare time.

So if I love it, why have I been sitting on my hands? In the past it has always boiled down to the old “what if no one likes my work?” Or “…it’s not really that good anyway, I just do it for me…”

What a cop out! I’ve had enough of that behaviour, even if it has only been mine. It really is counterproductive and has served purpose other than keeping me exactly where I am and not progressing as a writer and, I would argue, as a person.

It is only when I started to think of the other things that I might have missed out on if I had kept quiet that I finally got the point. For starters, it would mean the most wonderful lady in the world would not be my wife, I wouldn’t be a parent to our two wonderful children (AKA ‘The Dynamic Duo’) and I might have missed out on a job or two along the way.

So if I found my voice for these things, what’s the issue with writing? Why can’t I yell it from the rooftop, or desktop, that it is what I like to do and I’m not afraid to state it? The occasional rejection may just be good for the soul but for me it’s been a case of “Rejection? Oh no thanks I’m quite alright today, thank you, good bye.”

At this point, and I never thought I would ever say this, but I will invoke the wise words of one Mr Sylvester Stallone “I take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in my ear to wake me up and get going, rather than retreat.”

So that’s it then, from hereon this is how it will be:

• I will tell people that I love to write,
• I will share my work with others and not just the ones whom I know will only say nice things about it,
• I will ‘sell’, but not sell short, myself and my writing, and
• And yes, I might even jump on my desk to shout it out loud, but maybe only after everyone else has left for the day; because it’s really the thought that counts isn’t it?