I write, therefore I am.
Writing was invented as a form of counting (the Babylonians and Hittites used it to keep track of commercial dealings), but humankind has felt a compunction to write something beyond mere record-keeping. We’ve used writing to express something about ourselves, apparently since the dawn of history. Our lives, our thoughts, our times. But why? Contrary to the old saying, you really can’t eat your words! So, what gives?
Writers gonna write
If you visit ancient Pompeii, you can still read (if you read Latin) the graffiti where local pundits left their witty essays on every topic from the corruption/idiocy of local politicians, to insults regarding the quality of the wine and bread of local tradespeople. Some things never change.
From papyrus to paper to pixels, we writers have written about every thing from the beauty of a lover, to prayers to the gods to ask for help. We have a fine old tradition from ancient times of complaining about the manners of the younger generation, cheering for favourite athletes, of describing loneliness, joy, love for a child, loss of a parent. These are experiences common to authors through the millennia, and we can read those writings and feel them reach out and touch us across the vast distances of time. Writers gonna write: poems, plays and long epics about battles, unrequited love, victories and quiet good deeds. None of this is needed to physically survive, so where did this impulse from the very first author come from? Who knows. In the same way that painters had to scrawl on cave walls, and musicians had to carve flutes to play in temples, something called out to be expressed in words to the very first writers just as it calls out to you and I.
Don’t stop writing. Write something every day: private messages to family and friends, commentaries on events in the news, commiserations or congratulations on facebook. I write poems about things that affect me. I have a novel I add to as my imagination and time dictate.
I write for sheer pleasure …
… and I bet you do too. All this informal putting thoughts to paper (or pixels) is a stepping stone to make writing a habit. It’s our heritage. You and I have what it takes to make the next step to short story or novel. Even if written in little bits here and there, it’s amazing how much material adds up over time.
Embrace the long history that links us to the first ancient authors. Blogs of today are no different than the diaries and journals faithfully recording the events and thoughts felt worth recording many many years ago. No matter what century, writers simply can’t resist putting thoughts in a written format of some kind!
I suspect you too are writing something every day. Something small and personal – maybe not the Great Canadian novel, but something that communicates a part of who you are. Something that needs to be expressed, not in paint or in musical notes, but in words and sentences that string together and convey something uniquely yours.
If you haven’t already, one day you may find yourself expanding on that small idea for a story you want to share. Maybe you have a “what if this happened?” scenario that morphs into a short story or a full length novel. Maybe you’ll sell it. Maybe you won’t.
But the sheer force of writing – from habit, from joy, from sorrow – whatever compels you to write – will leave you with something tangible that you will be able to return to again and again.
Maybe that’s why we writers have always written, just to leave part of our selves behind.
Scripsimus.
“I wrote this.”
