For Writers: Everybody wants to write; but why?

The craft of writing has taken on a revered position in our society. Why is this so? It isn't writing itself that we admire. It is the mystique of writing that we admire. When a person thinks of a writer specific images come to mind. Maybe you think of Ernest Hemingway braving the natural world or Jack Kerouac braving the midwest -hoboing his way from railyard to railyard. Maybe you think of Tolkien and the wonders of Middle Earth.

So it isn't really the writing - it is the exploration that the writing represents

After all almost everybody can write. It is the mystique of writing that attracts us. Let me tell you a story. I was writing one evening when I got a knock on my door. It was two (very attractive) women. They were the mothers of friends of my sons and they were looking for their kids. I told them that the kids weren't at my house but maybe they were at the mal.l And before I could close the door one of them blurted out "So you're a writer".

This caught me by surprise. "I guess so. I do write and I have published one novel so far." From there the conversation took off. There were lots of the common writer statements and questions like: "I wish I could write". or "When you write a novel do you know how it's going to end before you start?" and "Do you write out an outline?"

I invited them in, we had a long conversation and a couple of glasses of wine over the subject and I took down two copies of my novel from my bookshelf and signed them. They were absolutely thrilled.

So there is a mystique to writing and to writers

Maybe I am no Ernest Hemingway but I do explore the world in my own way. And I do question life and its meaning. These are the things that come to a persons mind when they think of a writer. Not the endless hours going over a manuscript or the multiple pages crossed completely out or the thousands of footnotes scrawled in the margins of a work.

Now back to our Point - You want to write! Here's my advice

Write! Just write. Don't worry about passive sentences, writing an outline, getting the grammar correct or all of that other stuff. -JUST WRITE!

Remember what writing is really all about. It is the exploration and the questioning. It is something that we all, as human beings do and are. All the grammatical stuff will improve as you do it more and you find your voice. And besides thats what god made editors for!

Keep your eye oh the goal. Maybe afyter you have published your first novel beautiful women will come by and admire you! -or handsome men; whichever you prefer.

Here's a motivational thought: keep a good bottle of wine set aside for just the occasion and every time you get discouraged and you think you might quit writing that novel take the bottle down off the shelf and just look at it.