A few days ago I mentioned in my blog post that I’d started teaching my daughter to read when she was 3-years old. Now at the age of 5, she’s reading books for 7-year olds without having to point to the words.

Around two months ago I began teaching her how to write and send letters to her grandparents. (Snail mail letters, not e-mail.)

Then two weeks ago I decided to up the ante a little bit, and she started writing a story called The Underwater Sea Man.

That story is now 5 pages long – (5 pages of handwriting practice paper… the ones with the big lines).

Initially she was excited about writing the story. But on the first day when she realized she’d have to sound out a lot of words that she didn’t know, she wanted to give up.

Instead I helped her along. And yesterday as she finished reading everything that she’d written so far, she SQUEALED with delight.

She said – and I quote verbatim:

“Mommy I’m so-o-o-o proud of myself!”

Plans for the second and third Underwater Sea Man book are already in the works. All hail the active imagination!

You Can’t Shove – but You Can Show

As a parent I feel as though I’d be doing a great disservice to the fruits of my labor if I didn’t expose her to the writing world.

Writing – after all – is much more than ebooks. Being able to write well opens doors in so many different ways.

For example, when my grandmother got placed into a shoddy nursing home, I wrote an epic complaint letter to the governor of New York. Someone from his staff replied personally – within days. The problems were rectified almost immediately.

And even though I did horribly on my SATs, and barely made it out of high school, I still eeked my way into New York University. It was an homage to my writing because I cracked that entrance essay out of the park. (Although I never ended up graduating from NYU.)

That’s why when my daughter began asking what I was doing on the computer, I broke down the publishing process into bite-sized morsels that she could understand.

I explained how and why people buy my ebooks. We talked about writing stories that painted a magical picture for the reader. (Which is how The Underwater Sea Man was born.) I even showed her how to check my orders for the day.

My goal is to help her mentally grasp the Empire State Building sized power that mere lines and curves on a page can wield.

If she becomes a writer – awesome.

If she doesn’t become a writer – awesome.

The gifts bestowed now can never be taken away. They will be given sunlight and water and they will grow. And they will benefit her in ways I can’t even fathom right now.

So while you’re helping others with your words of wisdom, don’t forget to plant the seeds of writing possibility into the younger ones around you.

You can’t just be somebody who writes.

Be a parent who shows the excitement of reading and writing.

In Kill Bill 2 there’s a scene where Beatrix (the heroine) is thinking about the first time she met her kung fu master Pei Mai.

In his best “westernized women are trash” tone, Pei Mai asks Beatrix what forms of martial arts she’s good at. She says that she’s proficient in blah, blah, blah… proficient in blah, blah, blah… and more than proficient in blah, blah, blah.

Her so-called proficiency is soon put to the test, where we see Pei Mai barely lift a finger to defeat Beatrix.

Through her angry tears (and Pei Mai grasping her arm, nearly ripping it off) she concedes that she has a lot to learn.

The moral of this piece of the story?

Proficiency Sucks

When expert status (Pei Mai) was pitted against proficiency (Beatrix), proficiency got a first-class, no-nonsense thrashing.

And that brings me to the message of this post.

In the world of writing, most of us are proficient. I’m a proficient writer. I know I could be better. But proficiency has helped me sell a lot of ebooks, so why rock the boat, right?

Rock the boat because proficiency can become a danger to yourself in the big scheme of things.

Okay breathe that one in for a moment…

Proficiency is okay if you’re a government drone with a pension and 15 years under your belt. But will it always serve US well? Forever and ever, amen???

My proficiency (knock on wood) works to my advantage right now. But what if I could blink and have all the necessary words jump directly from my brain onto the monitor with barely any mental interruption? My skills would then give me a leg up over proficient writers.

Which leads me to a comment I read by Catherine Franz on Amazon.com. She was reviewing Word Work: Surviving and Thriving as a Writer, when she said:

“One of my goals is to read every book on writing.”

I was actually stunned when I read that statement. I got up, walked away from the computer and thought about the breadth of it. My heart was actually pounding.

It’s kind of like Beatrix training with Pei Mai to become a super warrior. (Which – by the way – we later discover saves her life, and helps her to defeat Bill.)

It’s an incredible tactic from a writers perspective. I can’t even fathom how much better I’d be as a writer if I took the time to read every single writing book there is. How much faster I could write. How much more creative I’d become over time.

As a writer I can see a goal like that changing the very essence of who I am.

That’s why I’ve stolen Catherine’s idea. (Though I’m sure she won’t mind.) I too am on the path to reading every writing book available.

And I propose a challenge to you… are you ready to change your proficient ways?

Are you prepared to know all that is, so that you can become one who truly knows?

Don’t decide now.

Just think about it.

As odd as it feels to admit outside of my mind, sometimes I think I just got lucky – as a writer I mean.

All in all I know I’m a good writer. I know that I was born to write.

But sometimes I lose my thunder. Sometimes I go to write, and I don’t feel like I can put the words together well enough to please you. I don’t feel like what I say is important enough to make a difference.

And so I languish in a place of uncomfortable-ness. Wanting to say something – but feeling nervous and apprehensive about the process and my ability.

And yes… that may manifest itself as a lack of blogging. (But oddly enough, I continue to create new ebooks with no problem.)

There’s this huge part of me that understands how wrong these feelings are. That part of me says confidently to others, “Writing is my natural strength.” And it’s there with me when I offer a consultation, and leave the listener excited with possibilities. That wiser part of me goes through these combative periods with my overly critical side.

Anyway, I thought it would be important to share this with you.

Why?

Because I try to keep it real at all times. I don’t want you to think that I don’t suffer along the way too. I butt my head against the same obstacles as everybody else.

Problems are surmountable though. At least this one is.

Two Ways I’m Combating This Form of Writers Block-itis

1) Templates

One of my goals for 2008 is to write more promotional articles. But I sometimes have a difficult time coming up with a lot of topics at once.

So I recently created a list of 800+ article title templates. Since I completed this massive document I’ve been able to crank out 2 articles per day with total and complete ease.

2) Writing More

Since I’ve begun to increase my promotional article output, I clearly see the value of what I write. My ideas are no longer mere thoughts that I mentally beat up before they can reach my audience. And that’s what I needed to see.

The only way to prove that you have the ability to do something is to just do it. Allow yourself to get stuck by thorns, and still keep reaching for the rose anyway.

Now be creative and prosper.