4 Reasons Why Writing Is Art

And you should treat it like one.

When you’re someone that writes every day for a living. It’s extremely easy for writing to feel like a chore sometimes. Of course, you’re passionate about it and you want to keep going. But it’s inevitable to have moments when you feel like you’re losing creativity.

If you treat anything like a job, it’s easy to lose creativity.

You probably look at other mediums of art like painting, film, music, etc, and ask yourself “Damn, I wish I could do that instead of writing right now”.

Well, what if I told you a little secret?

Writing is art and here’s why.

1. Putting words together is much harder than it seems.

The people who downplay writing as an art form, don’t understand how hard it actually is to put words together. I guess it seems like an everyday task people do all the time.

Do you know how much blood, sweat, and tears writers put in to keep readers interested in reading their work?

You can say it’s not rocket science all you want. Maybe it isn’t rocket science because you don’t have to entice people to stay on the rocket. You just make it.

As writers, we aren’t just making things. There’s a difference between building and crafting.

We’re building something with the power of the words and crafting them in a way that will keep the reader masturbating to our content.

2. There are a plethora of art forms within the art of writing.

Poetry, haikus, soliloquies, essays, plays, Syfy, fantasy, etc.

When you’re a new writer just coming into the game, it’s hard to figure out where to start. I spent my first months writing anime reviews and poetry. Clearly, this isn’t a poem or an anime review, but it also takes a vast amount of creativity to do the type of writing I do now.

Listicles don’t write themselves you know.

And if you want to take it even further, let’s use poetry as an example. There are even different forms of poetry within the genre of poetry. What’s that weird word I always forgot in high school? Iambic Pentameter?

As someone who’s had the challenge of writing in Iambic Pentameter out of force, all I’ll say is that I wanted to beat the fuck out of it with my pencil. Seriously — I hated it.

Just like music, it requires a lot of talent to move back and forth through genres of writing. You need to have even more talent to pull each genre off successfully — While still keeping the reader interested.

Ugh. The things we do for readers.

3. You have to FEEL for your writing to be any good.

You know what I loved most about the Transformers movies with Shia Laebouff?

I always felt at least three emotions throughout the whole thing.

When the Autobots left Earth and the whole planet became a playground for the Decepticons while everything simultaneously went to shit? I felt sad.

Say what you want about Michael Bay’s explosions. The actors in those movies did an amazing job portraying terror, love, sadness, etc, in the best of ways.

And that’s what I mean.

As a writer, you have to make the reader feel something. No matter what emotion it is, they have to feel something to keep reading. Whether it’s a horrible experience you’ve had or helpful skill you want to teach, it all comes down to the expression of feelings.

Since art is expression, well, that’s all I have to say.

4. You’re training your imagination — which takes years to refine.

Unlike chemistry, art is something that takes years and years to refine.

As a dropout chemistry major, I’m not saying it’s easy at all. However, science is something you go to school for and you learn it on the spot. It’s a very structured learning curve.

When it comes to art, you have to think. And I mean think. You have to do things outside of the box, take risks, and make something people can read for centuries. You have to repeat this process over and over again.

To the point where it takes years to get any good at it.

My favorite writers didn’t come out the gate as professionals. It took them at least five years to get the success they have now. More than it takes to get your average bachelor’s degree in chemistry.

They had to learn as they got better over time and only then, did they see exponential results in their writing.

You have to flex your imaginative muscles for writing. Something all artists need to do.

Final Thoughts

Writing is art.

I’ll say that till the day I die. Not everyone can do what we do and that’s just a fact. It’s not easy.

Not only do you have to pick what type of writing you want to do, but you have to structure your words correctly, add that emotional punch, and practice almost every day to get better at it.

It takes a strong imagination to create every day. It takes an even stronger imagination to entice your reader every day.

Remember this whenever you start to feel your creativity wane.

Your writing is your self-expression and that my friend, is art.