Repeatedly, I have been asked why I write. My response can best be described as me trying to explain the power of a writer.
Being a writer is being god-like. You have the power of life and death. Just by putting pen to paper, you create a character that has never existed.
As the writer, you are the origin of their life. You decide if the are male, female, both, or neither. If you want them tall, then they are tall, if you decide otherwise, then they are short.
It is your universe, no one can question you. You can defy the laws of gravity, or motion, or thermodynamics, and if anyone says otherwise, you tell them it is for a purpose.
It is an alternate universe. Maybe, that law was suspended thanks to a supervillain. Or your character is a superhero. Best of all, you can say something is wrong with the world on that day, and your character is on a mission to fix it.
As a writer, you can easily get drunk with power. You wake up on the wrong side of the bed, and you kill everyone’s favourite character. If your special someone offends you, you damage the life of another character.
Who can challenge you? I said it is god-like power.
Being a writer is fun, but also challenging.
You open an empty page, stare at it for hours on end, and nothing shows up. On another occasion, it is like your writing or typing skill can’t meet up with the speed at which the words are flowing out of you.
You look at your watch thirty minutes later and discover four hours is gone. Scrolling back to the first page, you discover you actually wrote fifty pages. The world is perfect and twenty-four hours is not enough for one day.
Although I have never encountered writer’s block, there have been periods I was unable to write. I knew what I wanted to write, but I didn’t feel like writing it.
Maybe that is a form of writer’s block. I doubt that though.
I am grateful also that I don’t need a special environment or situation to write.
To push me, I challenged myself to keep this journal through this year. I also tasked myself to treat writing like a job rather than a hobby.
Creating schedules when I must write. I still write outside those time blocks, but within that period, I must write.
It has been fun being a writer, and I hope to do it for a long time more. Hopefully, I don’t get power drunk anytime soon. And if soon, not too often.
Maybe you should give writing a chance too.
Wilson Joshua is a Video Editor, Content Creator, and Creative Writer.
Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. @IJOSWIL
