Writing

                                                                Writing

                                                             by Wilbur

     When you make the conscious choice to become a writer you expose yourself. Mentally and emotionally you should prepare yourself to embark on a journey where you believe that your ideas and your opinions out weigh a majority of the population, i.e. readers, and this is a form of arrogance. Relationships with humanity is a great equalizer. The world strives to keep everything on a base line. When you rise above that base line the world will attempt to pull you down to the level of the crowd, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. This is what protects the majority of the herd when the lion comes lurking about. There is safety in the herd. 

     The fastest gazelle will draw the most female gazelles, but for every fast gazelle there are ten average gazelles and three below average gazelles. A writer, like the gazelle, will have supporters, and detractors. A friend of mine in Nashville told me years ago, "Everybody wants to get next to a 'happening' guy." The average gazelle wants to graze beside the fast gazelle, and is in full awareness that although he can never be as fast perhaps he can at least enjoy the same grass. 

     Writers are like that. When you consider yourself a writer you are putting yourself out there as being faster than most gazelles. You are saying that your thoughts have more substance than most other people's thoughts, no matter how humble you may portray yourself. And writers are a paradox. Most, if not all writers are loners. Now, I'm not saying they don't engage with people, and I'm not saying they do not enjoy to company of others, what I'm saying is they enjoy the company of themselves above all other situations. Even the visit of a good friend will slightly irritate a writer because if you are a writer you know that the juices simply will not flow in a crowd. Ideas will form, the egg will be laid, but the chick will not form until incubation comes about and that incubation is almost always singular! 

     Good pieces do not come from arguments at parties. No matter how lively the discussion the final full circle of a great article, or blog, or book, or whatever will never complete in the company of others. It only occurs when the writer listens only to the voice in their own head. They listen to that voice and try to write it down for the readers to take in. Then they sit back and wait to see how the world hears that voice and they most do this with not a grain but a box of salt. 

     If you are a fast gazelle you will find a few others running near or slightly behind you. An average reader will never have lofty thoughts. That's why they borrow yours! Thats why the average gazelles are content to just eat the same grass as the fast gazelle. That's the beauty of writing. A select very few will be given the keys and have the ability to share those keys with others who use those keys to unlock doors shut to them before.  They share the grass! But, remember the slower gazelles? They either will not receive the gift at all or will only take it to use it against you. They will not appreciate the grass and even may hate the grass because they are so embroiled in their own sloth, or perhaps cannot even understand it at all! They cannot comprehend the key, much less the door it opens. Anyway, by the time these gazelles catch up most of the grass is already digested and the fast gazelle is leading the herd to new pastures. 

     You cannot judge a writer's success in dollars. One of the wonderful things about the blogging explosion is that it is predominately divorced from the trappings of financial scales that have plagued writers for years. All writers have had that question, "How much MONEY have you made?" A beginning writer will be put off by that question, but a seasoned writer will know the answer, although they probably won't be rude enough to say it. "I've made more money at it than YOU!" You will never get this question from successful writers because they know it takes many grapes to make wine, and a large part of what you write will be consigned to obscurity. The individual grapes are sacrificed to produce the whole of the Bordeaux. 

     I never judge another writer by the dollars or even the number of views on a blog. A friend of mine, Jenny Tolley Crossen, has a blog I consistently read. I have never looked at how many reads she has. I just enjoy the blog. I would like to add that I have never been able to negotiate my way beyond the first chapter of a Stephen King novel, and that's not to say he's not an excellent writer, I just like the Farmer's Market more than Walmart, that's all. 

     If you think you are a writer then you ARE a writer. As I said in the beginning of this article you write alone, and in the end if that's the only person who reads your stuff you haven't lost anything. The other gazelles simply can't see you because you're so far ahead, that's all.