Good Reasons Why Everyone Isn't a Writer
If you ever slaved over a term paper or the thought of writing anything bothers you, all too well you know your desire or lack of desire to be a writer. More obscure and counterproductive are many writers' aspirations to craft stories or articles believing they will rely on editors or elementary grammatical rules. Yet these barriers to authorship pale to the absolutely essential personality required to be a writer. Writing's complex, multifaceted activity requires three essential components: linguistic skill, desire, and personality to contribute to the quality and effectiveness of writing.
Linguistic skills, the mastery of language rules and techniques, grammar, and rhetoric enable writers to communicate clearly, coherently, and persuasively. It also helps writers to avoid errors, ambiguities, and inconsistencies that may confuse or mislead the readers. Linguistic skill improves by learning the principles and conventions of different types of writing, such as academic, creative, or professional. Reading a lot also enhances reading by allowing writers to analyze other writers' language use and style. Moreover, linguistic skills develop by practicing writing regularly and revising one’s work critically.
Desire, or the motivation driving writers to write, whether it is passion, curiosity, or necessity, derives from authorship's meaningfulness and reward. Writing is meaningful to the writer because it satisfies some interest, overcomes a challenge, provides a solution, and a multitude of other possible reasons. Desire also influences the writer’s topic, scope, and depth, as well as the amount of time, effort, and resources devoted to writing. Desire can be strengthened by writing about topics that interest, challenge, or inspire the writer. It can also be increased by setting goals for oneself, such as completing a project, publishing a work, or reaching an audience. Moreover, desire can be maintained by seeking feedback from others who can offer encouragement, praise, or criticism.
While skill and desire have some level of control, changing personality remains uncertain. Even if alterable, most people would not be willing to take on the writer's personality. Writing requires long hours of solitude and the ability to dissect life to extract the truth, sometimes requiring you to play a role, lie, be honest, not care about others' feelings, care a great deal about others, and many other contradictory behaviors and thoughts. You need introversion on par with the god meddling and observing pets running wild, then, with whatever honesty capable, write, criticize, judge, qualify their antics, or manipulate truth as seen fit.
If you ever read something that was bland, derivative, or just so completely unoriginal you could not finish, the writer likely lacked the introversion needed to either relate the story objectively or to exist in that self-constructed universe long enough to create the story.
Why do we write?
We write b/c we can’t tap dance, paint, sculpt, sing, play a musical instrument (most of us can’t anyway), or memorize lines to perform on stage, screen, or in any profitable enterprise requiring good or great memorization skills.
We lack acrobatic skills too (see above).
Further, we can’t cook, invent great useful shit, throw bottles of high-end booze around in fancy, juggler-type of moves behind a bar thus earning huge tips from drunken patrons, fuck, make decent movies (porno included,) glance at a portfolio and know which investments are sure-fire winners or losers.
We can’t sell snow to Eskimos, or suntan lotion to beach-dwellers or surfers. We can’t cliff dive, skydive, or carry heavy objects up and down narrow stairways (pianos, sub-zero fridges/freezers, fold-out couches).
Okay, and I know I coulda said this to start:
Most of us write because we do it a little or a lot better than we can do ANYTHING else including telling the truth directly.
Want proof?
Why do we write?
Because we have no real option except NOT to write, and where’s the fun in that?
I’ll add it here. on this grey Sunday that I write because I want to figure everything out before I die and while this is an impossible goal, the effort at chasing it is NOT impossible or useless. I write because I need to know what this big mess we’re in called life is all about.
God=Life and Life=God, IMO which happens to be very very true.
Keep writing kids. I gotcha covered. Let’s figure all this shit out before it finishes us off. xoxoxo
