I’ve just finished reading Seeking Wisdom, which is the latest book by Julia Cameron. Towards the end of the book, she touches on the subject of service.
In her prayers, which she often does through her morning pages, she said:
“Please, God, help me to be open. Allow me to be of service.”
And:
“Please let my writing be of service.”
It seems that these prayers help her when wrangling with her own doubts and battles as she makes it to the page each day.
This made me curious
I have been pondering this question of service. Should our writing serve other people?
Can we just write because we want to? Or should there be a higher purpose?
Demanding service from our writing could make it hard to do. Or it could, as it does for Julia Cameron, be the thing which unblocks us.
Liz Gilbert thinks differently
My other creativity guru, Elizabeth Gilbert, thinks differently. She is firmly of the view that the writing has to be for you and not to help others. In Big Magic she says:
“I mean, it is very kind of you to want to help people, but please don’t make it your sole creative motive, because we will feel the weight of your heavy intention, and it will put a strain upon our souls….
“… I once wrote a book in order to save myself. I wrote a travel memoir in order to make sense of my own journey and my own emotional confusion. All I was trying to do with that book was figure myself out. In the process though, I wrote a story that apparently helped a lot of other people figure themselves out – but that was never my intention. If I’d sat down to write Eat Pray Love with the sole aim of helping others, I would’ve produced an entirely different book.”
Who does my writing serve?
I decided to pose this question to myself.
The answer is that my writing ultimately serves myself.
I have a need to express my truth, to get thoughts, words and information on the page. With my novel writing I am also driven to get the story on the page. It is a creative process which I find myself possessed to pursue.
However, the by-product of my writing is that it also creates value for other people.
With Gentle Creative I am taking my own findings of the creative process and sharing them with you. I want to nudge people through the practical realities and internal perils of being a writer. I want to encourage you. I want you to overcome your own doubts and demons and write or pursue other creative aims. I want you to express your truth.
With my Countess novels it started off many years ago, as a way to process my own emotions about the pain of being single in my thirties. I wanted to transmit the main message that I learnt which is that you have to be happy with yourself before demanding that another person bring contentment to your life.
As time went by, my personal life settled and I met my husband. From then my motive changed to getting a fun, escapist story out into the world. (For those of you not in the know, Tales of the Countess features handbags that talk!)
With the subsequent books in the series, the service to others continues to be about entertainment, escapism and the presentation of a heart-warming tale. But I am mainly driven to do it because I need to satisfy myself.
To serve or not to serve
I don’t have a firm conclusion for you. There isn’t a correct answer. It is a very personal belief.
Julia Cameron prays for her writing to be of service and The Artist’s Way has touched millions of creators, myself included. In the blurb at the front of Seeking Wisdom, there are comments praising Julia Cameron and The Artist’s Way. Interestingly, one of those comments is from Liz Gilbert who says:
“Without The Artist’s Way, there would be no Eat Pray Love.”
And without Julia Cameron or Elizabeth Gilbert there would be no Gentle Creative or Tales of the Countess.
Who does your writing serve?
Is it for yourself? Or for others? Or for a combination of the two?
Plodding gently
Cali x
Photo by Davide Cantelli on Unsplash
Another great topic, Cali! I'd say that, for me, the motive of my writing is usually to express what I want to express, and to derive internal satisfaction and some external recognition. It's an ego drive to a great degree. For instance, in my column writing, I want to feel like I've come up with original ideas and clever or passionate ways of conveying them. But, in my current newsletter, I'm writing it more with the idea of service in mind. After writing and teaching creative writing in the classroom for many years, I feel like I've accrued some lessons I'd like to share and have some questions I'd like to pose that will hopefully be helpful to other writers. I'm still quite ego-driven (checking on the number of subscribers, etc.), but it's a joy to write for this purpose, too.
I have found that true humility--through both words and behavior--flows without effort.