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| Photo credit: Taylor Liberato on Flickr |
Point is, I’ve been thinking about the process of
writing—not the techniques and structure and style of the words, but the act of
writing itself, the literal scraping of graphite on paper that forms into
shapes that our trained brains then interpret as words or the tapping of labeled
keys that send electronic or wireless signals into a machine that replicates
the letters we ask it to reproduce.
I’m talking about the signals that our brains send to our
hands, our fingers, the thousands of internal, automatic processes that in turn
lead to words cemented into paper, into computer code, into the outside world.
I’ve come to realize that writing—hell, any type of
creation—is amazing and beautiful and special, and sometimes we forget just how
incredible this writing thing (or painting/drawing/sculpting/composing thing)
really is.
We have this ability—this incredible ability—to create
something out of nothing, to transform blank pages into beautiful prose, to
tell a story that no one else knows. That no one else would ever know if we
didn’t tell it.
We writers are special, and it doesn’t matter if you’ve been
writing for two weeks or two decades, if all you’ve ever written are short
stories and poems or if you’ve published twenty novels. Every one of us has
something to share, something that only we can create, something that sets us
apart from everyone else.
Don’t forget that.
When you spend months or years pouring your soul into a
manuscript that only receives form rejection letters, don’t forget that you’ve already
done something incredible.
When you write post after post and you feel like no one is
listening, don’t forget that your words are special because they’re yours.
When you’ve rewritten your fourth manuscript nine times and
you still can’t get an agent/publisher to notice you, don’t forget that you’ve
already created something out of nothing—that you will create more.
Writers/painters/sculptors/musicians—artists—are special.
You are special.
Never forget it.
