Writing is my life.
It’s what fuels me, drives me, what let’s me color this world with every shade of myself, whether those shades are dark or light.
Thing is though, we’re all writers. If you’re shaking your head ‘No’, chuckling about the atrocity of your writing talent, stop for a moment and think…There you go. You just wrote. You formulated your thoughts and ideas on your writing ability and formed intricate sentences and perceptions about yourself and your talent. Yes. You have a talent for it. Why you ask? Because the way you formulate your language is entirely unique to you. Whether you find yourself often lost for words, or have constantly racing thoughts like me, you’re always writing your own internal novel based on how you look at reality – pretty cool, right?
Writing MAKES my life.
Now for me, someone who actively labels herself as a “writer”, my mind may seem a little more…calculated (and crazy, definitely crazy).
Even when I’m not writing, I’m writing. I’m struck with ideas that influence my feelings and thoughts. Sometimes, I feel like I’m suspended in air, my head in the clouds, or, I’m suddenly possessed by a character that is dying to be written. When I say possessed, I’m being quite literal. I become lost in the idea, it begins to sink into my muscles, into my bones.
This phenomenon used to happen much more often when I was in middle school.
When I initially started writing my book, Facing The Inevitable, I let the idea take me over. Since the setting of the story was in a school, it took me mere seconds to slip into character, considering I was in school setting myself almost everyday. My novel is a horror story (of course), so in moments, I’d find myself sinking in between my shoulders, my hands beginning to sweat as I sat in my desk. I let myself feel the fear. I’d look at my fellow students, and they’d quickly become characters in my story. I’d sit and write their backstories in my mind while I continued to think as the main character. Thoughts like ‘How can I escape this place?’ and ‘What are they going to do to us?!’ would constantly rush through my mind, and you know what? – It was the most invigorating self-induced experience ever. And to this day, still is.
Maybe a little.
When I let myself become my writing, I act.
I used to act when I was back in middle school and in high school, so it makes sense that my brain would default to this. Some of the most intense scenes I’ve written are ones where I’d let myself become the character. If I had to write a scene where someone was in pain and was about to fight, I’d physically clench my muscles as I sat behind the keyboard. Sometimes I’d even stand up and “act” out a fighting stance, all while pretending to be in pain. Letting myself imagine and ‘feel’ these experiences first hand allowed the words to come to me so much easier because I was the character. I’d even feel a residual pain because of how focused I was on the concept of pain (which just reminds me how amazing our brains are, because if you think hard enough about a feeling, you really feel it).
Music also is another thing that brings me into character.
Some of my darker music selections can bring me into the shoes of an antagonistic character in seconds, and I almost always have an evil smirk plastered across my face by the time the song ends.
Yeah, and it’s GREAT!
These are some of the few reasons why writing is my life. But in the end, I will always write because I need to. Writing is what keeps me going – Hell, it’s what keeps us all going.
I don’t care if you don’t consider yourself a writer, but have you ever really thought about how much writing affects your life? Books are writing. Movies are writing. Educational textbooks are writing. Video games are writing. Your thoughts are writing.
Everything around us is an amalgamation of intricate ideas that is given meaning through language – through our words. Our language gives us a basis for how we view and interpret the world, while our words are our own unique application of the language we are given.
Just by being able to use and apply language makes you a writer. You’re always writing your own story through your own thoughts and indulging in other people’s stories through friendship, family, or media.
You are your own novel.
This is why thinking like a writer is so important to me. I’m using my words to escape from this reality, while being a construct of the words I use through my language.
I create stories, but I also am a story, filled with hopes, wishes, dreams, thoughts, feelings, and ideas.
I may write to break apart the painful monotony of daily existence, but on the other hand, I am fascinated with my words, just as I am of others, because they are writers too – they’re just telling their own story, one chapter at a time.
Do you consider yourself a writer? How are your words unique to you? Leave a comment below!
With everlasting encouragement,
