So, Write.

Originally posted on my personal blog: "So, Write. "

My roommate, Pia, started her own blog last year, and in one of her very first posts, she named me as a “big inspiration to start this(her) blog”.

What a nice thing to say about someone who once wrote about her eyebrow situation. But all jokes aside, it was honestly the most fulfilling sentiment for me to hear today.

I’m endlessly delighted to see that my often nonsensical and sometimes self-incriminating writing has encouraged someone else to start their own nonsensical and self-incriminating blog. (Which is perfectly okay, by the way) That probably means I did something right, after all. I think.

The praise from her was humbling, because I often do not write to sound “poetic”,”deep” or “brave”. Sometimes the motivation to type up a few words comes simply from the fact that there are a lot of thoughts in my head that beg to be written, or else, I may become more insane than I already am. Sure, I could have kept a diary and wrote there, but I decided about a year ago that I had neither the patience nor the presence of mind to keep a diary. I would probably lose it and all hell would break loose then. But that got me thinking: why do I write?

The answer, I’ve realised is that sometimes I write because some things are impossible to forget, and I must write down those wayward thoughts before they elude me. But mostly, I write because I’m afraid that if I don’t, then I will forget. And I am always afraid of forgetting.

I feel that the only way I can revisit my memories of people and events as accurately as I can is if I write about them immediately. Or at least, as soon as I can before the memory fades, which will be a terrible thing to behold, I think.

Regardless, there are many great reasons why people make an effort to jot down their most sincere and most vulnerable thoughts; all of them are arbitrary. Maybe you write to make all the thoughts doing cardio in your head shut up, or maybe you write to be inspiring and empowering to other people. Maybe it’s just because you’re bored or lonely, or bored and lonely. It doesn’t matter.

What matters is that words are beautiful, and writers are some of the rare few who struggle constantly with the simultaneous beauty and frailty of words, because stunning as they may be, words are painfully limited. They never truly encompass each and every emotion that one feels; you can say “I love you” a million times in a million different ways, but your beloved will never get to know the true depth of that love, because all you can ever say is “I love you”. Those three little words will never suffice to carry the burden of a loaded emotion such as amour.

The beauty in writing comes from having so much to say and not having enough words to say it all, but very nobly and persistently trying to do so anyway.

So, write. It doesn’t matter if you think you’re not good enough at it, or if you don’t know what to say. Write even if you think that whatever you want to say is ridiculous or irrelevant, because words are always more beautiful in black and white.

And words that are written with passion from the heart? They’re magical. Believe me.

Regardless, here’s a little something that I’ve learned from keeping a blog alive for more than a year (which has never happened to me before, so hooray!):

If you want to learn how to eloquently say anything that matters, then learn to become a writer. If you want to write something that’s worth reading, then learn from others; read often, and read widely. But if you want to make something beautiful to share with the world, then write about everyone and everything you have ever loved, and you will find yourself never running out of things to say. The gist is that, you cannot be a good writer if you do not learn first to be honest, and then to be brave. It is that kind of courage that allows you to describe your deepest and most vulnerable thoughts and put them all in writing, even at the risk of being greatly misunderstood.

“To write means more than putting pretty words on a page; the act of writing is to bare a part of your soul to the world.”

Tell me, friend. Why do you write? 

- K

featured image from: http://rebloggy.com/post/cat-drawing-art-cute-cartoon-comics-doodle-typewriter-bulldog-artists-on-tumblr/105220882696