Writing: What is It?

"It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured. I realized, somehow, through the screaming in my mind, that even in that shackled, bloody helplessness, I was still free: free to hate the men who were torturing me, or to forgive them. It doesn't sound like much, I know. But in the flinch and bite of the chain, when it's all you've got, that freedom is a universe of possibility. And the choice you make, between hating and forgiving, can become the story of your life."

- Gregory David Roberts in Shantaram

Shantaram is still my current all-time favorite book. How I heard about it and obtained this copy in the photo is quite the tale. Synchronicity is a very interesting thing.

Growing up I was a voracious reader. I loved how books transported you to far off worlds you never even imagined. As I got older I marveled at my favorite authors and couldn't fathom how they had all these crazy ideas and storylines worked out before they wrote a book about it.

I've always written but not necessarily by choice. In school you rarely get the opportunity to write about something that you are interested in. Write a 3 page paper about the intricacies of Shakespeare and whether the iambic pentameter helps or hurts the storyline. Who cares about that? Certainly not me. Regardless, I'd go home that day, bust out a 3 page paper on the assigned topic within 20 minutes, print it out, throw it in my backpack and turn it in a week later.

Writing with ease comes easy to me. Words love to flow out of my hands to give meaning to my never ending thoughts. I never realized that's not necessarily normal. Writing with brevity is much harder.

Writing a 10 page essay is easy. Writing a well thought out one page paper that's under 500 words and makes sense to other people is immensely difficult. Incessant thoughts make rambling easy. Shortening that up into something that's intelligible to others is akin to trying to pound a nail into wood with water.

Practice makes perfect though. If something is hard, that's what you need to work on. Growth does not come from strengthening what already comes easy to you. Focus on what's difficult and growth is a byproduct of working through that stressful uncomfortableness. Over time it becomes easier.

It wasn't until I started doing my own writing, as an adult, writing about what I want to write about that I discovered the underlying truth behind writing.

Authors don't write because they have a fully formed idea or story. They write to sort out the initial idea or storyline. To see where it leads.

In my mind, each thought is on a sticky note and these sticky notes are plastered all over my brain, which can make it hard to find specific thoughts or ideas. You know it's there somewhere but it can be hard to find. The process of writing though allows me to take all of those random sticky notes, write them out onto paper, in a way that makes sense (to me anyways), then I can take that paper and put it inside the filing cabinet in my brain.

Then those thoughts are organized, I know where to find them and I can easily reference them. That's much easier than having sticky notes all over the place. Which really just makes room for more sticky notes on different subjects. Which leads to more writing. A bit of a flywheel effect.

The process of writing is what allows you to organize your thoughts. It's like taking a photograph of your mind at that exact moment in time. As time goes on, your thoughts will most certainly change as you go through the world and constantly learn (learning never stops). If you have your thoughts written out, then you can reference them and see what you thought about something at a specific point in time, compare it to your current thinking and see the growth.

What I write about, doesn't mean I have it all sorted out, it means I'm writing about it to sort out my thoughts, to see what I actually think about it. I don't write for others, I write for myself. If others find it helpful, that's great, which is why I've made all this public but the reality is, that's not the point. I don't write for you, I write for me.

I have guides on growing, preserving and cooking food because I know I'll want to reference that in the future. What does my current self hope that my future self will remember? That question is what drives all of my current writing. It's me going: Hey future self, remember this, don't forget it and if you did already forget then remember.

Everything I write about, I approach it from the mindset of: nobody's going to read this. Which is a very freeing mindset to approach writing from (or really anything). If you're doing it for others, that probably needs to be examined. If you do it for yourself, then it's just a present you're giving yourself.

Everyone should write, it's very therapeutic. Next time you find yourself thinking incessantly about something or you have a fun storyline or keep coming up with random jokes or an idea you can't get out of your head. Pick up a pen, grab a pad of paper and just start writing, write it all out. You'll be amazed at how your thoughts suddenly become organized through the process of writing.

Even if you take that newly written paper, ink still wet and immediately cast it into a fire to incinerate it. The thoughts remain organized in your mind, even if the physical paper no longer exists.

Writing doesn't come from fully formed ideas. It's a seed that's planted then grows the more you write about it, the more you nurture it.

Writing can also be a weapon that has an extremely sharp blade and it's very important to be aware of this and wield it skillfully, purposely and intentionally lest you unintentionally injure bystanders.

Turns out if you write randomly here and there, before you know it you'll have enough to fill a book, perhaps even several books.

If you set out to run a marathon, focusing on the end of the 26.2 miles is a recipe for disaster. Focusing on each step, as it happens, is how you'll make it to the end.

Write it out!

This same principle can be applied to anything in life.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about: What is writing? Why do I write?

Well... now I know...

The brevity still needs some work... maybe tomorrow...