Writing Itself
Sometimes, when I am writing something, I really hit on the essence of the words and it comes out nicely the first time. Other times, I write for a long time about something I like very much, but I keep on missing the right mark by just a little bit. Sometimes I can’t even write at all—my brain just goes to mush and begs me to watch television or something.
When I am having difficulty with articles for this website, I am compelled by the urge to keep revising them, working on them, and trying to see what I’m doing wrong. I can feel it when something is wrong with my words, like dirt on my skin, itching me, begging me to wash the problem away. But with writing, the problems don’t just go away as easily as soap and water. They need a long time to soak in the back of your mind, until you can come back later with a cleaner mind, and see clearly the same mistakes you were blind to before.
Writing even a simple paragraph is a journey. It may take minutes or days before it feels right enough to let someone else read it.
The shoes on this journey are perseverance. You write and write until you can’t write anymore… and then you keep on writing, even about writing itself.
(updated 11-23-2003)
