Forming a Habit: Day 3

"I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as the tangle with human emotions."

James A. Michener

Today's quote is brought to you by another of my favorite sites: Goodreads.com. As a reader, I highly recommend this site. It is like Facebook for the soul. Sharing my love of reading with my friends is amazing. Having a place to compare reviews and comment on each other's progress, push each other to finish a book, or encourage each other to try a new genre is amazing. The site also offers a place to add your favorite quotes from books and save them to your account. This one was added by someone else, but I loved it the moment I read it. I felt it. I know exactly what it means.

Writing is not simply putting pen to paper, or fingertips to keys, and writing full sentences. Writing involves so much more. All of the senses should be involved, the words should flow like a river. I am currently reading a book by Danielle Steel. I had never read her work before and the book was a birthday gift, so I figured I would give it a try. I cannot understand the draw. Her writing is very repetitive. Very frank. It's not flowery or descriptive. It is not subtle and romantic. Maybe it explains emotions, but it doesn't show them to the reader. She only tells you what it feels like, she never allows you to feel it for yourself. This is challenging as a writer, to give their reader a sense that they belong to the story. A good writer, in my very humble opinion, wraps the reader up in the character so much so that the reader feels their pain, their anxiousness, their joy. And this is the beauty of what Mr. Michener is describing. It is a mingling of emotions with the words that creates the ability to feel those emotions as the reader, and as the writer as well.

I write to free the sorrow in my soul. I write to share the joy in my heart. I write to give of myself and to see my words in front of me, bleeding on the sheet as though they were my life poured out of me. In the end, I suppose that they are exactly that, my life poured out. I hope someday to write all of the stories that live inside my head. For now, this is a start. Getting myself to write each day, to be excited about writing every day, making time to do it every day, this is better than I could have imagined. Soon I will share my writing on here, and hope someone out there is reading it and will tell me what they think. For now, just saying what I think will be enough.