Writing for the Sake of Writing

I've always dreamed of exploring a hidden kingdom of words and phrases, unraveling miles upon miles of uncharted territories of tear-jerking short stories and emotion-inducing essays, as I swim through the oceans of prose and poems unlocking their similes and metaphors like treasure chest found in sunken shipwrecks, only to find myself trapped and had to fight a labyrinth of psychotic thoughts and nightmarish daydreams in an attempt to escape this dangerous lost world I found with my created masterpiece in hand. It may sound far-fetched but this is all that a writer must go through to find his masterpiece. So far, I am nowhere near close to achieving that. And even if the journey of a writer is a perilous road with numerous sidetracks that is easy to get lost to, I would continue and strive to reach that goal.

"You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them." When Michae Jordan said these famous words, it taught me that visualizing ourselves to be the best t what we can do is the greatest single step before achieving glory and greatness. Confidence could be the driving force for someone to persevere. If greatness and confidence don't go hand in hand, I'm certain that people like Ali, Jordan, William, Blake, and Michelangelo wouldn't have made such an impact in their professions. Like all the great writers of the past, the moment they have written that indelible ink on a piece of paper- they expect those verses, stanzas, and paragraphs to touch an unknown soul, along with the hope that their piece was much greater than what they wrote it for. Simply put, have some faith in the stories we write because what's the point of trying something if we're not doing it in the first place. A good writer is a product of numerous shredded papers and amateurish write-ups. We have to tirelessly examine our work, replace our work and mediocrity, and endure hours of lecture from editors and publishers to achieve the desired masterpiece. No person could ever reach a mountain's peak without giving up some steps.

And there are no shortcuts and secret formulas. Like how Stephen King's "On Writing: A Memoir of Craft" book put it, the best and simplest way for us to achieve greatness at writing is to write and write. That's what makes writing, a beautiful human tool. It's part of what makes us human beings, the ability to perceive reality and tell it in a whole new light. Everybody can write. It is a skill that we all have but to persevere and become a master of writing separate artists from individuals. To move mountains, split oceans, and change minds with just a stroke of pen equipped with imagination is a terrifying skill that is worth dying for. If anyone disagrees with that point, Dr. Jose Rizal would certainly rise to his grave just to tell them otherwise. It took a kid from Calamba to afford a ticket to Spain, learn their language, and use that knowledge to write novels that changed the course of history. The pen can be mightier than the sword because literature can stand through the test of time and still have its relevance retained unlike actions do. Nobody would care if I painted my sleeping friend's face with body paint and swiftly got away with it. But if I try to write about the process of what I've gone through to make my friend fall asleep to successfully lay the trap or how I painted my friend's face while snoring and post it on Facebook or in a school paper, everyone would take notice and perhaps remember it for years. The action does speak louder than words but powerful words can shape the actions and hearts of the masses. Mastery of writing is a skill worth acquiring because words can leave a permanent mark on the reader's mind if done right. Those were the things I learned in my journey of writing.

So every time I manage to write a terrible piece for a magazine or in any medium that has a public audience, the only sane thing I can do is cringe at my work and hope people about the piece I made. What we wrote on a piece of paper can be immortalized in the minds of its readers.

Whether the audience thinks of our write-ups is something of significance or just a waste of a good paper, it is best to leave the relevance of the work to their thoughts and emotions. We can scribble all the enchanting words, magical adjectives and find as many unfamiliar terms as possible to put in our sentences and paragraphs. But if it can't touch a single soul, then it's no less than a piece of paper with no words written on it. It's part of what makes a writer., an extremely stressful work.

But an inspiring Octava Butler quote said this, "You start out writing bad and thinking it's good stuff and then you gradually get better at it." Let words flow on a blank sheet of paper because what's really important is to persevere in letting one's pen talk rather than over-thinking what to write. Writing might never be considered as some sort of talent but it is undoubtedly a skill that needs constant refining. It's something that everyone can easily begin with but only a few can find themselves as masters of it. And in my case, I am still on a journey of refining and learning, searching for my desired masterpiece. Poems and proses can only do so much but quench my thirst. But if constantly scratching a page on my notebook while scribbling it with some sentences to have the nerves of calling it a literary piece is a way for me to call myself a writer or having a tyrannical editor-in-chief motivate me to pass my write-ups during deadlines is a way for me to have my verses and prose found a medium for exposure, then the journey of a writer isn't so bad after all.

Lead image from Google.

Fyangzee

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