THINK
just a few thoughts off the top of my head
Writing is a compulsion. It’s a necessary element in the motion and reaction of a writer’s day. This lifelong desire to write began in an unsettling adolescence, and in the pages of poets I found a shelter of sorts, comfort and acknowledgement too.
The words would rise from the paper and filter into my head and burrow into my soul. I left the nonsense of romance novels behind.
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While Shakespeare confused and angered me, I was at home in the readings of Matthew and John, and danced in the moonlight to the poetry of Dickinson and Clare. Alright, so I didn’t actually dance under the moon, but in my head I was delighted, no, elated! to read portions that I understood.
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As an adult, I discovered a kindred spirit in Thoreau and Emerson. Simplicity, living simply and organically. These two writers have inspired me more than any other!
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Writers are eclectic human beings. We are wired in a different way than most, and perceive the world around us in a diverse light. What one may consider odd, a writer would view as fascinating.
Some see just a vase. A writer sees the feminine hand delicately pouring tepid water into the glass urn, sunlight streaming through the window pane striking the indigo glass and causing prisms to salsa throughout the room. She smiles, but her eyes are saddened by the loss. She picks up one simple crimson tulip and gently slides it into what will surely be its death.
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It’s not just a vase.
Writers engage life in a manner that is unlike any other. The possibility is there, the idea that springs forth, originating from the Father above, and resonates within, finding itself on paper.My ideas arrive early, as I am falling out of slumber. My eyes haven’t opened yet, and still I can see an undulating marquee in my mind’s eye, one sentence. What is that? It’s a gift! An idea is a God-given inspiration.
Writers are extraordinary and each of us given a gift, and with that a responsibility. You’re either committed to your craft, or you’re not. You ARE the craft. Writing is a habitual expertise.
Writing is not about good ideas; it’s the sitting down every day and putting the time in. Plunka, plunka, plunka …
When it comes to being a good writer, is it a matter of pure talent or discipline? A bit of both, and perhaps more so the latter.
Writing is a gift, and therein is a sense of duty to transform thoughts into cohesive sentences. And the most valuable resource for a writer is time. Time wasted is a fatality, one that is never recovered.
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Leanne Campbell
