Today the challenge is to write about writing.
I love this crazy thing called writing. I think I developed a love for writing at a young age after I realized how much I loved reading. Other worlds, characters who went on adventures, people who seemed to figure things out as I turned the pages. It fascinated me in every way. I loved smelling the pages and running my fingers along the paper edges. I loved wondering how they would take me on such an adventure and make me love people in only 200-300 pages.
Writing is such a creative process for me. Like any art I have attempted, it carries a similar theme. I sit down with something blank in front of me and try to make something. And not just any old something. Something good. Something great. Something life changing for me and whomever might read my fine words. Ha!
Writing is something I love to do even when its hard. In all honesty and seriousness, the act of writing takes me through a mixture of emotions and makes me feel all of the things.
First I have to be decisive and courageous and put something there in that whitespace in front of me, not really knowing exactly what is going to happen. Then I have to let go of the strictness and allow the creative juices to take over and make a journey happen from those first few sentences.
I have to take myself somewhere, hoping my reader will follow. This applies to non-fiction or fiction. No one likes to read or let alone do anything that gets them nowhere. I have to move them. Change something in them somehow. No pressure.
I also love the creative process. It may sound strange, but I honestly feel really close to God when I write. I think the part of his character that is CREATOR seems more real when I’m writing.
It makes more sense to me how He loves us so much because He created us. As soon as one of my characters forms in my mind, I am connected to them. I love them. I want to watch every move to see what happens to them as well as the choices they will make. It is a special relationship purely because I made them.
The sound of my fingertips on the keyboard clicking a maddening patter even now makes me content. It is a really unique experience to move your fingers and see words form in front of you. Where there was nothing, there is something. Where you weren’t sure what would happen, all of a sudden people are doing things and going places and you can make it whatever and wherever you want.
I could write about writing for way more than 500 words, but even what I have written reminds me of why I love this so much and why I am so thankful for this challenge that has brought that back to life in me.
