Writing...yeah, that's a verb, an active one

So...I started writing this in a Beaner's coffee shop (I'm sorry, I still can't get over the name change, I like the old name better, and not because I'm racist, it's just a cool name), but I left because of technical problems and now I'm in the library doing what I'd set out to do: write!

So here I am, every so often I fiddle with my battery cord on my laptop as I try to use the failing part just as much as I can before it dies. Basically I've set up my office here in a public place acting as if I don't have my own home to go to, what helps with that is the fact that I also have my cell charging. Well, it's a good thing my image isn't the most important thing to me (it should be obvious since I'm also unshaven). The point is, I'm writing!!

In the mail yesterday I received the newest issue of Writer's Digest, which sometimes I wonder if someone I know will be on the cover or I just wonder if I'll read this one. The struggle of my reading the actual magazine is really the attitude of the articles. I'm not complaining here but basically taking everything I read in that magazine and putting into a general and simple phrase: "here are the tools, now go do it!!"

Okay, I've ended two paragraphs with exclamation points, I should stop being so dramatic (maybe it has to do with the music I'm listening to on my iPod? Okay new song.). To tell the truth (which I try to do all the time), I really enjoy just holding the newest issue of that magazine as much as I like holding a new book on writing. If all I get from this publication is just one new idea, my whole life as a writer could be changed in which whole new opportunities and wells of imagination will be open. The possibility is enough to make me excited (which sometimes takes some doing). But that really isn't enough to actually make me read it. Out of the twelve issues I own from this year, I've probably not read 50% of them, but it's probably more and I just haven't made sure. I've wondered why I don't read it...and I can only come to one conclusion.

I already know that the only way to write is to actually write...yeah, it's an active thing.

Simply put, in our already overcrowded schedules we just need to make room for writing. Do we enjoy writing as artists? Or is it really such a hard thing to do? For some reason over the past months since I've tried to re-enter my life here in Michigan my life as a writer has fallen short. (Okay this is getting out of hand...I just plugged in my ipod to the wall...I've got too many cords running into me hahahaha) I say for some reason because I seriously can't say that it's especially hard for me to write as much as I just don't make time for it. Consequently I become almost afraid that as soon as I begin to write it'll be like a monster that takes over my life. Not a bad prospect honestly, but I did have a few other things I wanted to do, now I've basically given up and said "alright, I'm a writer."

That's not how it should be for every single person though, and to a certain extent I think that's the idea we all wrestle agianst as artists. We look into history (which is a very good thing to do) and we see the Michelangelo's, the Virgil's, the Milton's, y'know, all the big famous people and we see complete and total dedication. It's just quite possible that these people at one time in their lives may have actually done something normal before they became famous. Like John Wayne before showbusiness, he was a set man before he was a cowboy superstar. Me...well, I'm not going to do that. I'm just me. Anyway, we're people and we don't have to be so monsterously into our art that it overtakes our life. My choice is to be kind of like that because I feel like that is entirely my calling. As for the rest of the people in this art, its take a little bit of honesty to realize the different levels of our passion. But in all seriousness, writing is an active word.

I began writing when I was five. Literally after I knew how to write it didn't take me long to realize there's no rules to writing!!! I was such a happy kid because I could make up my own stuff on paper! Of course I always wanted to show mom so to a certain extent I still had to "behave" but when I actually set the pen (or at the time, the pencil), I found a freeing feeling resulted, which even as a little kid was consuming. It picked up to a serious addiction at age 11 and now it's gone through a stage of being something I fight against, and now...I've succumbed to writings incredible power.

So...yes there is a point to this post. Writing is an active word as much as acting is an active word when you talk about drama. When I read my Writer's Digest, I see a great amount of convincing going on, as if writer's of this age are plentiful yet they are all apathetic. So...do we buy a copy of Writer's Digest simply to act like we are writers? Or do we actually realize the basic principles of being a writer?

Putting words to paper is not a passive thing, and it takes a great deal of imagination to put them in the right order to where an average person will take time out of day to pay attention to your worldview (which most of the time is in conflict with their own). Here I sit in the middle of a library, surrounded by literature, names of people who've written and here is the product of their work. We as writers can't even get into this place if we don't realize the actual word "writing" in itself details an active stance of consistently putting words to paper. It doesn't have to be a constant stream, but it should be a daily occurrence.

We'll talk about the fight once we get into this plethora of information later, right now it is enough to convince you all that writing should be active. No, it is imperative that it is active.

Writing as a word is active.

You don't need to read Writer's Digest to understand that in a hundred page publication, just write will ya? Read that magazine to improve your writing as an active writer. The only way to motivate yourself to write is to finally come to the point where you stare at yourself in the mirror and get serious, answer this question: Am I a writer or not? What you should do next should be obvious.

WRITE!!