Why We're Here Wednesday: Try Writing

A year ago had you told me I was going to be a writer out of school I would have called you crazy. I’ve always been a decent enough writer, I never pursued it creatively, but I was good enough to get through all of my scholarly papers without too much trouble. I think in a lot of ways school is what soured my views on writing, not that I don’t think we should have to write in school but I think that anything we do for long enough in school just becomes a chore eventually. It’s unfortunate though that things like writing become such a chore because the written word is an excellent creative outlet.

If you read my Monday article, you know that I was stuck in my artistic process the other night and it was one pain in the ass I didn’t feel like dealing with. I gave some ideas on what to do in that situation but I left a big one out because I wanted to go more in depth on it, and that’s the written word. As artists, we’re constantly trying to hone our creative mind but we often get stuck on the image and forget the word. As I said, school often tarnishes our idea of writing and even if you enjoy it, some things are tailor made to tell you you’re bad at it. Basically what I’m trying to say is that a lot can tarnish our view of the written word so we tend to forget about it as a creative process because we don’t like it or think we’re not good at it. But don’t forget about writing because it’s great. Even though I never saw it in my future I’m thankful that I became a writer because now I have a totally new outlet. When my painting is off or I can’t draw for some reason I can turn to my words. Your mind has a constantly flowing stream of ideas and as creatives we need to keep them coming, and if you have multiple outlets to create those ideas use them!

So my advice to all of you is don’t make my mistake, make art with your words, not exclusively but keep it in your pocket. It might not turn into a career, it might not even be good, it might just be for yourself, but it’s a creative outlet that allows you to get things out. Even if it’s an idea for a painting or drawing or sculpture you just can’t create it right now, write the idea down, write anything, use your words! Try a trip down every avenue, you never know what you’ll find.