31 Day Writing Challenge Day 08 - What is Writing?

What is the art of writing?  It’s me capturing the thoughts which are in my mind and putting them on a page for you to read and be intrigued by as well.  It’s not as easy as it seems either.  Some days it is as if I am pouring out of my soul things which every person on this planet needs, and then other days it just seems to be drivel.  What will today’s prose hold?  Who knows, and this is just one of the things which cause me to sit at my desk and peck away at this tiny little keyboard.

I don’t know why God chose to give me this particular desire, or at this point really what He is intending me to do with it.  All I know right now is to just keep writing, honing this craft until it is better than it was the day before.  I’ve already learned when writing not to use the word “that” too much.  Usually when you write something using the word that, you can say the very same thing without it, for instance; He was looking for Straight Street that Simeon lived on.  Could also be said this way, He was looking for Straight Street which Simeon lived on. 

Every day I want nothing more than to learn some other way to make my writing better, or to be able to say things in what appears to be a much more intelligent way.  It is also my desire to learn every day how to paint a picture with my words in the mind of the reader to such a degree they are willing to rethink the way they thought about the subject I am introducing.

How do you do this you might ask?  By setting aside time each and every day to write something, anything.  Part of this 31 Day Writing Challenge is not to write things which will go on to be published, as much as getting those of us involved in writing.  I may or may not write something inspirational every day, but each day I learn a little bit more about how to motivate my brain to actively think about how to put things onto the written page.  You might think writing a minimum of 500 words a day is easy, but let me tell you, if you don’t have the ability to think about a topic and then start writing about it, it ain’t.

I love the process of putting things together.  This creative part is what I really love about writing.  I remember one day being in the shower and pictured in my mind’s eye an older military man lying on the ground peering through his binoculars, a smoldering cigar clenched tightly in the corner of his mouth.  The words; “Curling around his head like gossamer, smoke from the stub of his cigar clenched tightly in the corner of his mouth floated effortlessly into the air.” popped into my head, and I knew I needed to start writing.

This was all there was to start with, and within a few days time I had written almost 2000 words and from this one image in my head, a story had emerged about an ex military man who now helped break down current security systems, and put new ones in place which were much better.  And it all came from a simple little image in my mind while I was lathering, rinsing and repeating.

This is what I love about the writing process, and each day I’m getting a little bit better at it.  Go me!