The writing life. There's some beauty in devoting one's life to writing down one's thoughts and having everyone want to know the inner canals of thought that has been eroded through one's brain. Reading is like spelunking; you stand before a cave and the sun shines before you. If you stay on the surface you can enjoy the sunlight and be connected to what you've always known. But to travel into the deepest parts of the book, you need to feel it, to live it, not just to love it. You need to be brave enough to venture past where the sunlight shines, and explore new places, no matter how distant they seem. You need to embrace the fact that not everything you know to be true really is, and that sometimes if you aren't careful and let the book really enter your being, then it can change you. If it does, then you've met a good writer.
We are all familiar with the psuedo-writer. You know, the guy in the back of the cafe on his laptop, acting like he's writing like Doestoevsky. Too good to talk to anyone but himself and completely unapproachable. This is totally unlike the true writer. The true writer seeks out the impressionable, finds the obstruse, and is concerned with every aspect of life. He revels in the joys of others, and in all honesty it's not because he cares about their impression of him. He is the ultimate observer, finding the core of everything and recording what he finds.
So how you know if you are a real writer? It's not as if you can really be told that on a blog. You need to discover the answer for yourself. Writers need to write, after they discover the need. It's like a drug to them, a release from all the emotions that plague them, the judgements, the experiences.
Tersely, being a writer doesn't come with the fame. Hell, you don't even have to be published. It isn't something you do for someone else. You do it for you.
We are all familiar with the psuedo-writer. You know, the guy in the back of the cafe on his laptop, acting like he's writing like Doestoevsky. Too good to talk to anyone but himself and completely unapproachable. This is totally unlike the true writer. The true writer seeks out the impressionable, finds the obstruse, and is concerned with every aspect of life. He revels in the joys of others, and in all honesty it's not because he cares about their impression of him. He is the ultimate observer, finding the core of everything and recording what he finds.
So how you know if you are a real writer? It's not as if you can really be told that on a blog. You need to discover the answer for yourself. Writers need to write, after they discover the need. It's like a drug to them, a release from all the emotions that plague them, the judgements, the experiences.
Tersely, being a writer doesn't come with the fame. Hell, you don't even have to be published. It isn't something you do for someone else. You do it for you.
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