To Be A Writer?

Embracing a dream to see what comes

Revision

The ability to fashion ideas and thoughts in such a way as to express them clearly and powerfully to others, this is a writer. To entertain with fancies an adventure. To create a world of fiction for others to enter, this is a writer. To allow the idea that is in one's head to pass to paper. Letting them be born. Reframing them from being just another thought. To revisit them until they become fully formed characters and stories. To read them until they become what you want them to be. To you, they cease to be fiction, they become real. When I speak, I'm not just speaking of those published and professional writers. I speak to and for all who have ever put pen to paper, all who have let thoughts become. The people who are not afraid to let their mind wander and their hand move. I am certain, that many writers have lived and died in darkness. That writing is never to be seen by another human eye. Now I ask does that make their writings less powerful or meaningful, perhaps, less elegant, complex. No. To be a writer takes patience. This patience is not placed on the publisher, but oneself. To have the thought, but lacked the words is one of the most frustrating fillings I have ever known. This frustration causes fatigue and lends to the idea of forgoing the effort. To this, I suspect many writers were lost to the world. I have ideas. They are all present and flashing in my head. Will half of them ever reach paper? No, not likely. Does this mean I should stop trying to do something that seems so impossible? No, I like words; I like knowing them and using them. Combining words into strange yet correct phrases. Using words in unconventional ways is not always wrong. As a matter of fact, sometimes that is the only way to tell that someone has written something and it was not someone else. This my friends, is called style. Be that as it may, many teachers’ especially high school and college teachers frown upon free liberty writing. Such writing breaks can grammatical code and is therefore wrong. I have been "wrong" many times. Did they change my writing style? To some degree they did but I like to think I kept the foundation of my format intacted through all those spirit sucking essays and research papers. For a writer, to know and use words is to love them. To love them is to use them. To use words in creation is inspiration. Do I love words? Yes, I do. It is because of that love of words and their uses that many writers aspire to become professionals. I also believe it is because many writers become professionals to gain that one element they lack, an element that is able to propell them to greatness, an audience. Even with the Internet and all other technological marvels a reading audience can be hard to find, unless one is published. To be published requires a certain level of conforming. This will not do for some, thusly, they may choose to stay in the shadows rather than compromise their ideas.

One who claims to want to be a writer and claims failure due to lack of education is in self-denial. Inspiration, imagination, is the fuel behind every word and letter. No one needs special classes or permission to come up with ideas. If someone supposedly lacks the talent to write that means they lack the passion for words or ideas. If this is true, they need not write. To those who work and toil, triumph will come. That idea, that plot, that elusive word will come in time and with it will come the fulfillment of true worth and power. Nothing beats it. This sensation of success will energize you for years to come.

Why did I choose to be a writer? There are many reasons, but ultimately only one matters. Ever since I was little I wrote stories, had thoughts most of which are kept to myself. Why this hesitation? Fear, fear of ridicule, fear of rejection, and fear of competition: losing to someone better. Although, as most know, while playing with words, you will get better: you must practice. While practicing this art you will loose to others. When you lose you will learn. When you learned you get better, eventually, you might win. Writing is also a medium which I identify as art. It is an medium I can successfully render. It is the only method that I can use to express myself. I cannot sing, I cannot paint, I cannot play music, however, I can describe. I can paint pictures with words. I can make environments and suggest music for the reader to accompany with his or her imagination. I can make a world and invite hundreds of people to come see, to come be a part of the world. Those participants are my audience, my readers. Perhaps they will love my story and thusly love me. When they love me I will love my writing. When I love my writing, I'll love my life. To love your life is indescribable, even by writers. Will I be a novelist? I know not. Will people love my writings and love me? I can't fathom. I know what it takes to be a writer, for I am one. To Be a Writer... is a choice. Choose!