Writing Is Art — Here Is a Reason You Should Keep at It

Growing up, I was taught to love books. Initially it was a real chore I must admit but, once I got the hang of it, I got entranced by the sheer seduction of all the knowledge it offered. I was hooked!

For me, reading books became second nature in no time. Some would argue to this day, that I still prefer reading a good book than socializing with real life people. But I digress. With the love of getting to know more, came the desire to read more stories, articles and whatever written piece was guaranteed to teach me something new. The idea that someone somewhere, wrote such brilliant stuff absolutely blew my mind. It was a marvel to me, the deep intellect they must have possessed. I was so love-stricken by their gift, I didn’t realize when I started trying to become a writer myself.

When I did come to that realization — that subtle but intense desire to begin writing — I got hit with a really big question in the early days of my quest to becoming a writer. “What would you write about?” I still struggle with that to this day, and I can’t help but wonder if the greats maybe ponder on that same question sometimes. As if those were not enough, each time I tried to write, certain insecurities would begin to pop up: am I as good as other writers? Would people actually take the time to read my story? Would they actually enjoy reading it?

The mind is capable of being a formidable limitation to any form of progress if one pays heed to it. Entertaining those thoughts cast such a long shadow on my desire to write that in no time, I arrived at the point of giving up on it entirely.

However, something changed eventually that helped me get past all that self-doubt. In the last two years, most of my reading leaned towards history. You could rightly claim that I fell in love with the past. I think it a beautiful thing to see the world as it was. Get to learn about its toughest periods, its heroes and villains alike. History is a means to experiencing cultures, understand heritage and simply learn what others did right or even wrong, and how all those actions affect the world we now live in.

Reading all of those books and trying to soak up all they had to offer got me to an even more appreciative point. I got to understand more, just how valuable writers really are! It is easy to get carried away reading about world changing figures like Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other titans in human history. Or reading about life changing moments like the first step Neil Armstrong took for all mankind on the moon, when the walls of Berlin fell and the moment China opened up its ports to the rest of the world. Those are all beautiful to read. They tend to tear at the heartstrings of anyone who reads them. But the truth is, it is equally easy to read all those exploits and somehow remain oblivious of the great writer who skillfully captured those moments.

Thus, the bittersweet feeling associated with being a writer. On the one hand, you can’t help but feel the rush and excitement knowing that your work, is helping preserve history. On the other, you have that nasty, nagging feeling that no one would remember what you did when they read about those heroes and life altering moments. Most times, that feeling turns out to be correct.

Yet, writers remain the unsung heroes. The key witnesses of unraveled greatness, most often relegated to the ranks of obscurity. Not many things can outlive a civilization but over centuries, we know for a fact that knowledge through papyrus, parchments and scrolls have beaten those odds to serve as conduits through which instructions, warnings, guidance and stories move from one civilization to the next. Same way information written in books and digital print help us even now, to navigate through our world from one generation to the next. In the middle of all of that transition, are writers. What we have to say might sound small at the moment but over time, those words find a voice of their own and echo!

So, in my journey to becoming a writer, after finding assurance in great models and life changing stories, I discovered the confidence to carry me across to where I needed to be. It’s how I found the courage to toe the path that led me here, to Medium. In my first Medium story, I recall sitting down and staring at a blank page for close to thirty minutes. I guess it is part of the process for a lot of creatives. I see that white blank page as an easel. I am the artist. Having a mental picture of what to write and possibly how to write it isn’t always going to translate to what I eventually write. It usually starts with a word. I paint in a few punctuations in between and thereafter those words begin to take up different shape and meaning to all the different people who would read them. At the end, when I look upon the final copy of my work, I am completely satisfied. I have no iota of doubt then, that I have created a masterpiece regardless of the lack or abundance of appreciation it gets.

In conclusion, it is my personal opinion that writers have the most honorable, timeless and extremely important role to play in the world. Writing is an amazing art to practice. Writers get to educate, enlighten, entertain and empower whole generations, including those yet to be born. I am slowly getting to the point where I can introduce myself as a writer and not feel like an imposter. Perhaps I will share my story when I am convinced, I have earned that privilege. Until then, I am in awe of writers and I am absolutely thrilled to be surrounded by them.