You Can Save Your Kid from Prostitution or Lawyering, but Never from Writing

The addiction no one talks about and that cannot be cured

Whenever someone asks me if they should become a writer I always ask them if they have considered becoming a prostitute instead.

I mean, your customers seek you out, your own skill set does not actually matter much beyond making a few monotonous sounds, the working hours/remuneration ratio is vastly superior and the sheer likelihood of payment is far more certain.

Ok, so maybe I do not actually say this out loud. I actually just say “No”.

Because if you can just walk away from writing, you should. If you cannot, then you are already a writer. Then, it is pretty much just about up-skilling for the rest of your life. Think of it as a special kind of open air prison that people semi-voluntarily sign up for, eagerly checking the box that will grant them a life sentence. Go figure.

I think the two things parents pray most for is to never to have their young adult son or daughter sit them down at the kitchen table and say: “I have decided to become a prostitute.” or “I have decided to become a writer.”.

Why should I not become a writer?

Next people will be wanting a list of reasons that they should not do crack! Where do I even start?

Writing…

never ends

is frustration on an industrial scale

is hard work

is something you have to get better at forever

will lead to almost certain struggle to earn a living wage

And you might lose your mind on a regular basis, as you will discover the infinite number of rabbit holes hidden in your brain and discover they are filled with assorted disorderly notions, facts, filters, assumptions, delusions, thoughts, semi-thoughts, sea monsters and utter nonsense. You will chase your own tail through the looking glass. You are guaranteed to also discover you looking right back at yourself in open scorn, more times than you will want to endure. And yet, people worry about absinthe.

Throughout my youth, I was told I should become a lawyer.

And I am confident I would have been a good one. I know I would have actually enjoyed constructing arguments and whipping pertinent facts through painstakingly designed hoops.

And though I have been fortunate enough to make a good living as a writer, it is nowhere near the indecent amount of cash I could have scored as a lawyer. Basically, any working writer has a beast of a work ethic that they could have refocused effectively into some much more lucrative career. But then, it was just never really an option. Because writing.

Nothing beats it. There is such immense satisfaction in distilling thoughts into a visible form that can be shared with other people, across vast distances of space and time. Writers commune constantly with the depths of their own humanity, while simultaneously making a constant exploration and study of everything they can observe of what other people think, feel and do. To find the connections, to discover what resonates. And then bring that into their own work. All to ultimately make direct contact with the minds of perfect strangers to entertain, influence, inspire, uplift or otherwise make some valuable impact. Essentially, to move people.

Once you have truly seen or felt the impact of the written word, and then have also somehow been compelled to allow the sentences tumbling around in your head to enter the world on paper or on a screen, it has begun.

And if you return to this activity again and again, regardless of the reward or lack of reward, scribbling onward at intervals, you are most likely in the throes of a full-blown addiction and there is nothing to do about it but write on and hope for the best. For I have never heard of a single case of anyone being cured.

Here I am only a few weeks into writing on Medium and I feel like a kid in a candy store! I love this place. So much to read, so much to write! I really came to Medium to read more by a few bloggers I kept stumbling across. I kind of just happened to write a thing or two. And perhaps I may have five or twenty drafts cooking. But I do want to say that, despite all that, I can quit anytime I want to. Really.

© Ingrid L. Williams 2019