Surface Writing Or Soulful Writing?

My apologies for not getting a new post up on Monday. We spent the entire day traveling home from my brother's funeral services in North Carolina. It's a time to be with family where we love and support one another at a sad, and sometimes unexpected, loss. 

I had written Friday about getting those family stories written, not just told. On Saturday evening and all day Sunday, I heard one family story after another. Laughter accompanied some and others brought tears. Of course, there was no time to write them this week-end but that must be done in the coming days. 

The poster above seemed particularly appropriate since I started writing a poem mentally on one of our flights yesterday. I was too tired to read, an unusual occurrence for me, so I closed my eyes to rest. Words began to float through my mind, words about my brother whose life we had just celebrated the previous day. Before I knew it, a verse of a poem had put itself together. Four lines that came phrase by phrase. I grabbed a slim piece of paper in my purse and wrote them down. One verse that came from my soul. One verse that cries for a beginning and an ending which will come in time. When finally done, I am certain I will share it and that it did come from my soul.

Give some thought to the quote above. We all like to put pretty words together, words we hope will please our readers. If you share a part of your soul when you write, the words will be more than pretty. They will be memorable, gratifying, uplifting, possibly beautiful. 

There is surface writing and soulful writing. Which one do you think will be the better kind of writing? When we write on the surface, we are trying to get a job done. We pull words from the air and from our mind to achieve our goal in a particular project. There's nothing wrong with that. Many a professional writer writes surfacely, especially when facing a deadline. 

It's the projects where we write by pulling the words from heart and soul that will often be remembered by readers. For me, there is no doubt that soulful writing is going to be our best. 

If you have a few minutes, take a look at some of the things you have written, ones published or not yet published. Can you label them with surface or soulful? Can you tell why those labels are on each one? Does it make you want to be a soulful writer the majority of the time? It's something to keep in mind as you begin each new piece.

I am hopeful that the rest of the poem I plan to write can be as soulful as the one verse that has emerged so far.