Writing: A Desirable Pain

I recently considered: What is true writing?  Writing isn’t merely pinning words to a page and watching them make sentences, and writing isn’t imagination painted by letters.  Writing is definitely not words seeping from your fingers into your pen, so what is writing?

I’ve been thinking about what writing really means.  Sure, it can be some of the things above; lots of imagination, pages, and pens, but true writing is something far deeper, far more painful.

I love writing and think that my life would be terribly dull without it, but writing is harder than it sounds.  That is blood, sweat, and tears, throw in several headaches, and prolonged periods of irascibility and moodiness.  Sure sounds fun, doesn’t it?

I have found a comparable occupation to writing.  Parenthood.   Now, I have no personal experience with this, but observation has led me to this conclusion.  When you write, you are the parent of every word that leaves your mind to your page.  You must take control of it, before it gets away from you.  But you are also destined to be forever tied to your “child.”

Some days can be wonderfully easy, everything behaves perfectly, and the docility is paradise.  Some days can just be slow, nothing happens, no matter how you try.  And then there are the days where it seems that no one can make it out alive.  Throughout all of these days of mixed emotions, it is still necessary to never give up, because one day, you will find that moment of realization.  That moment when you can say, “Ah, now I understand.  Now I know why I slave away, now I can see the importance.” 

When you put everything you have into your work, everything in you will be reflected into your work.  Throw yourself into it, mind, body, and soul.  Writing may not be easier when you plunge your life into it, it may be ten times harder, but if you can look ahead to see the end result, as with anything in life, your attitude will change.  Let the world see who you are through your writing.  And then, when it emerges, leaves home and sets off to make its own in the world, shed your tears, like any parent should, but have courage.  It will reflect you.  No one will think you someone other than who you really are.  But be careful.  Take care that you are whom you would want the world to know.  If you examine yourself and find a person you would not like to meet, change your heart.  Your story will change with it.