The Lesson I’ve Learned
My two cents' worth as a newbie writer
There is this inexplicable new sense of urgency to write. To turn the fifty-four-year-old mind bank of floating personal data into cemented text. Stuff that defines me. Random experiences that influence my existence. People and places that are etched in my soul. Objects that speak to me and facts I don’t want to be going to the grave with.
I want to put it all down. Not with a pen and paper — fingers to a keyboard is so much easier. It’s legible, has an instant spell check, can be cut and pasted, and is miraculously auto-saved (note to self: remember what the cat did?)
Plus, there is a delete button.
The pandemic has highlighted a lot of things for me, and I am sure many others can relate. How much we take for granted; the unappreciated freedom to decide and to choose what to do, where to do it, and with whom. Thirteen months since the world was abruptly turned outside — in, we remain gripped by its clutches, ruled by a microbe.
No gatherings allowed. Masks mandatory. No pubs or restaurants open. No gyms to expend energy and remove those excess calories ingested or drunk. Borders closed. An 8 to 5 curfew. No end in sight.
Nothing exciting to look forward to or to do.
Still.
Thirteen months!
But write.
Now that I have started, I simply can’t stop. My thoughts are continually racing, I have so many ideas and memories that have suddenly arrived in my consciousness that they wake me at night. They are scrambled together as I blindly scribble on a notebook that has taken up residency in my bedside drawer.
Once my left brain goes to sleep, the creative right side sits bolt upright. A literary bomb erupts in my head. A title is born; words gel and sentences stream. If I don’t write the flood of brain waves down, they will vanish by morning. Regurgitated back into my hippocampus and possibly never retrieved.
I’ve learned so much in the 3 months I have been writing. I’ve explored other platforms, read like I never have before, clapped, commented, saved, and yes, done my fair share of muttering as well. I am fed up with seeing posts about making money, not making money, how to make money; what to write, what not to write, how to write, when to write… you get the idea, right?
This is my second story on writing. My first I published two months ago in Vocal Media and although did repost here on Medium, it did nothing. It was too long. The biggest lesson I have learned is, ironically, to stop writing. I have developed writers' diarrhea when words just stream out of me uncontrollably. I have to keep my stories shorter if I want to keep my readers.
This is a renamed and edited version of my first story. I’ve cut, pasted, and changed direction from the original to see what happens.
Less is more — Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Architect
FYI: I really wanted to ‘top highlight’ my key sentence (The biggest lesson I have learned is, ironically, to stop writing) but after an hour of searching, I could not find how to do this. So please, if someone could help me out, it would be much appreciated. Merci!