Why I Write 2

 

WHY I WRITE

EVEN IF NO ONE READS IT

(Part 2 of 2)

“Writing is an obsessive, compulsive disorder.”

(Stephen King)

Always like to say “I write to find out what I think”. Turns out that can be a lot of work, and turns on a lot of that work is wasted effort. Going to leave my laptop for some future generation to read all the stuff I thought about but never published, or even finished writing.

Have done some small preparations in writing process: Some book learning, a couple of writing seminars, and a nifty-keen YouTube channel for not-that-good writers where the producer actually answers your comments. And, yeah, I learned a lot from my parents and teachers. Mostly, though, like most writers I learned by mistake. Learning by mistake being my primary talent.

Much loved wife says writing is my art, and artists can do anything with art they want, even learn by mistake. Following is my thus the state of how I do ‘art’.

MY PRIME DIRECTIVES

Writing is not about me
Writing is talking to people you don’t know, or like.
Writing is being curious about everything new to you.
Writing is finding out if what’s important to me is important.
Writing is knowing if it is important to anyone, it’s important.

Writing is listening
Writing is listening to things not heard before.
Writing is listening to things that can not be true.
Writing is listening to things heard many times before.
Writing is listening to things that have something to teach.

Writing is thinking
Writing is noting the thoughts before they’re gone.
Writing is filling in those notes with real, live words.
Writing is making sense of those beautiful thoughts.
Hard part is the thinking.

Writing is writing
Write like nobody’s watching, because there is nobody watching.
Write like nobody’s reading, because you want to have no interference.
Write like it’s important to you, because it must be important to you to write it.
Write like everybody’s reading, because otherwise it’s not worth anybody reading.

MY BOUNDARIES

Neither make the rules nor play, just report on the game. Limit to observations based solely on own admittedly limited experience and knowledge. Facts if I got them, opinion only if clearly so labeled.

Neither defend nor attack another. No one has given me any authority to do so, nor to I have ability to judge which is truth. I can only observe and seek the rest of the story.

Stick to writing ‘prose’ and not essay or thesis. I haven’t the mind for great research nor in-depth thinking. If it weren’t for Google and Wikipedia wouldn’t even know what ‘prose’ meant [Language that usually exhibits natural flow of speech and grammatical structure].

MY CONCLUSIONS

Remain open to everything, even if it’s ‘wrong’. Gotten too old and seen too much to know anything. I’m just an ill-informed observer of too many lost and wasted years.

Writing, as the man says, is an “obsessive, compulsive disorder”. Most of what I write is written because I can do no other. If it is, as it often is, important to no one, at least it gets out of my head.

Danger is that once it’s put in writing, there it is. If the writer learns and grows, as writing tends to make happen, said writer cannot change the maxim ‘what I have written I have written’. Write like some future generation will inherit my laptop, actually read all th junk on it, and wonder ‘what was he thinking’?