April 7, 2015

The Life of a Writer in a Nutshell.

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“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”  ~ Ernest Hemingway

When I say “I’m a writer,” the first thing people ask me, “What do you write about?”

Tongue-tied, I stand still for a few seconds. I can see it in their faces expecting me to easily say politics, dating, spirituality, entertainment or any other topic.

How to tell them that being a writer is not like being a doctor or a banker; it’s not learning by heart a formula then applying it.

I wonder if my explanation of what I write about would make any sense. At some point, I end up telling them that one word they want to hear, keeping the divergent life that writers lead to myself.

Writers lead two lives: The one people see versus the one people don’t see.

The life that people see is pretty much the ordinary one. We wake up in the morning, have our morning cup of tea, we write, we publish what is to be published, we tuck away what should be tucked away, we have our evening cup of tea and we peacefully go to bed.

The life that people don’t see however is the life of a madman.

A madman who runs to his notebook when he feels the urge of writing, like a mother running to her own child when he calls her.

We are lunatics when we stand still before an empty page. The walls are witnesses of the amount of paces that writer’s feet take before pouring words.

We are successful meditators when we start writing; our mind is solely focused on words. From enlightened beings, we metamorphose to a river that doesn’t know how to stop flooding words.

Our life is a movie with a plot. The voice that’s running inside our heads is a philosophical one. Its tone is artistic and feverish; it’s a script, not really thoughts.

We see the world in words. Every shape represents a letter we wish to put on paper.

We are good listeners because we are admirers of words. Every expression we hear makes a good book to write.

We are good talkers. We find the right words, link thoughts with emotions and give a clear image for almost everything.

We are scientists who study every object out there to simply come out with an astonishing description that perfectly suits it.

We empty our emotions in words. The paper before us is an enormous sea that can tirelessly absorb sentiments.

Deep rich conversations give us mental orgasms. We feel words making love to us in an uncommonly divine way.

When we don’t write with our hand, we write with our minds. There are endless white pages inside our heads that are ready to be mentally written on.

Our rooms hold numerous hidden notebooks. They are our hidden treasures in life.

Our mornings are an introduction and our evenings are a conclusion. Our day is the body we hope to never undergoes a downfall.

Happiness to us is learning a new word. We think of it, daydream about it, and fantasize about the minute we will use it.

We read and then we read a little bit more. Our daily intake of words is uncountable—the more it is, the merrier we are.

We wish to be understood. Behind every word we write, hides a bundle of thousands of other words, each filled with infinite emotions.

A library is home. A book is our comfort zone. The pen is our savior.

The greatest gift we think is best to give is words. We write our close ones cards, we send them thoughtful messages and shower them with the hidden sources of our minds.

Our conversations are structured like an article. We make introductions, create subheadings, make transitions and then end with a well thought conclusion.

We despise saying aloud the deepest sentiments we hold for other people. We write them down and send them.

We are vampires who know no sleep. Nothing can put off the flame of writing except for writing.

Our aim in life is to touch other people with what we write.

We believe that words will make the world a better place.

We are writers.

And we will make the world a better place.

 

Relephant Reads:

Ernest Hemingway on Writing.

 

Author: Elyane Youssef

Editor: Travis May

Images: Wikimedia

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