The challenge of Writing

Anyone who writes knows it’s a challenge just to put pen to paper or finger to keyboard. The difficulty is enough already but if your body and mind aren’t in the right place it can make creativity almost impossible.

I speak from experience. My relationship with writing has existed almost as long as mine with reading. I always knew I was a writer, but like most things in life I ran from the challenge and thought that it was for other people, not me. I think that is the mistake most people make. It’s certainly what I did as a child. Playing guitar and writing these were for talented people. I’m just me. How could I think I deserved to play the same instrument as Hendrix or have the same profession as Shakespeare?

It was only once I realized the secret to life I stopped being so hard on myself. It’s okay to suck. In fact it’s absolutely necessary and all those people you think are so talented they sucked just like you. They had all the same self doubt even if they hid it better.

This world will try to cage your mind at every turn. Constantly trying to force your life into certain lanes. From the moment our brains can comprehend the world society drowns us in tradition and cultural expectation. The new mind is slowly inductorated to the limits of the society it’s born into. The ability of truly free thought is cut off right from the start. This is the artist’s struggle to find the child’s freedom in a mind mired by societal restraints.

Breaking free of that restraint is something that can only be done with constant practice. Imagination is like any other skill, It can be learned and improved but strangely never taught. It’s a part of the mental muscle and must be exercised like any other. All you can do is read, write, and just like physical exercise it will take a while but eventually you see the results. That’s what keeps you moving forward.