So You Would Be A Writer

So you would be a writer. You must be bold and passionate.

A Writer Must Stand Alone

You would learn to entertain your own thoughts. Stand alone when others are about.

Leave a legacy that will last into the distant future?

You must make room for the hunger that drives a writer, usually hidden hungers.

Enjoy the endless hours of solitude, late night and early mornings.

When others are chattering about current events, your mind is a million miles away.

The few who are your friends—the few people who can tolerate your absence—often wonder what’s on your mind.

Your mind is always behind the scenes—yes, way behind.

Solitude For A Writer

The brain needs 2 or 3 hours of solitude to adjust to new surroundings.

The left and right halves of the brain switch dominance every 90 minutes—so do your thoughts. When all is still in my world, thoughts come trundling in—like loaded boxcars, their freight sometimes heavy and other times like wispy and fragile.

Always on a one way journey from some mysterious place—they don’t tarry.

They abide but for a moment—and are gone; I must snatch them quickly.

Be Different

You must be willing to be “different.”

Think thoughts that are out of context with current reality. Current reality is an illusion.

You must be content to run against the wind and in the face of what others believe.

Coax your own thoughts into words that utter your own “truth.”

Not be afraid to stand out and get humbled—not humiliated—there is a big difference.

Change The World

Know that you may change the world in little ways—or even big ways; even change someone else’s world a long time after you are gone.

I will write to do much good and no harm.

Cheer others onward, teach the young to have heart.

Teach the old to trudge onward—perseverance in the face of fate.

You must reluctantly remove from your mind and your life that which distracts your efforts.

Don’t be discouraged when your words fall on deaf ears or the ears of the dumb and ignorant—they are for you to educate, when it may be possible.

Remember that you may be singing into the wind and no one seems to hear, or care.

A writer is a teacher.

It can be a lonely trek, but quite rewarding.

A writer is immortal.