Am I Addicted to Writing?
Thoughts of a newly-discovered writer
Writing has become an addiction of sorts. I’m on vacation and all I do is think about new article ideas. I lay poolside right now writing this on my phone because my mind won’t rest.
Writing has become my outlet for all my thoughts, a way for me to express myself and share stories I want to tell. Things that occur in my everyday life.
I find myself mining each moment for story ideas. Like the pool sign I’m looking at right now that reads:
Pool Hours Dawn til Dusk
It’s a white sign with some landscaping surrounding it. A few bushes and flowers. I notice there are vines growing up the two poles that hold the sign. I find myself thinking about vines and what they symbolize. Maybe I’ll write a poem about vines.
How do they defy gravity the way they do? Growing upwards and wrapping around objects that are near. Most plants would flop over if they grew the way a vine does. But vines have an innate ability to cling to things nearby, like a baby clings to his mother.
Writing has unleashed a beast within me that wants to write 24/7. My phone is currently as 22% because I’ve spent the last three hours laying by the pool finalizing a story I’ve been working on. I’m supposed to be on vacation relaxing, and while writing is a way for me to unwind, I find I’m overwhelmed with the need to write.
The thoughts never cease and I fear if I don’t write them down at all hours of the day my brain will explode.
I lay in bed at night trying to fall asleep and new topics come to me. I find myself grabbing my phone to jot them down before they’re forgotten, replaced with other wandering thoughts.
The idea for this publication, Unwritten Journal, came to me as I was trying to fall asleep.
The other night I drifted to sleep forming sentences for my next story, and when I woke in the morning those sentences were gone. Initially, I was upset that I couldn’t remember the story I had started in my mind the night before. Lo and behold, it came back to me today and I made sure to write it down this time.
Is this what it’s like to be a writer?
Having notes scattered about, random scribble in my journal, tons of unfinished and abandoned drafts.
It feels like an addiction. I can no longer let my mind be unoccupied. It instead fills with story ideas and an itch to write.
I guess it is an addiction, and the only way to cope is to write, and write some more.