Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Stripping Can Be a Real Pleasure

The greatest gift a writer can give us is a new way to see the same old world. 

Words can be used to inspire pride; "Ask not what your country can do for you..."  They can be used to instill a greater understanding of world altering events, "One small step for man..."  They can make us tingle because we know we are in the presence of greatness, "I have a dream..." 
They can be used as weapons to pierce and wound.  They can make you laugh, and they can make you cry.  They can be rewarding or they can be used as a punishment.  They can send us to great heights and devastating lows.  Knowing this, understanding this, can make a good writer a great writer.  

Not all people are meant to be writers and not all writers are meant to be great.  But what all writers do have in common is that burning desire to express the characters and the voices in their head.
 
Writing while rewarding, can also be very revealing and writers are, if nothing else, exhibitionists at heart.  We strip ourselves bare and reveal things, sometimes things that we don't even know we are revealing.  I don't think I could dance around a stripper pole in public but I do it every night when I sit down to write.

Taking it all off in the name of story telling is one of the most rewarding, overwhelming, exasperating and intense things I have ever done.  And I continue to do it because it's such a turn on.


2 comments:

Elana Johnson said...

Ah yes. Nothing quite like writing to bare your soul. Great post!

Unknown said...

ah yes...the old adage that writing is like opening up a vein and bleeding out all over the page...and then the critics that come along and disect the size, shape, and style of the stains left behind for the world to see. I wouldn't trade it for the world!