The Brazilian Mutt’s comment about how writing consistently is important despite being difficult got to me and inspired this article. So, thanks, Mutt.
What is the value of writing? Why does it matter that we do it?
I think that writing, in some fundamental way, changes the universe. Oh, the changes may be imperceptible and they may not redound upon you right away, but they’re there all right. You never know when the words you say may impact someone who will be important in the scheme of things one day, but this isn’t all.
The act of communicating, whether spoken or on the digital or paper page, is designed to alter things. Shit gets done. Marx worked in isolation for much of his life, but his writings impacted the greater universe, for good or for ill, in the century after his death. The same could be said for Nietzsche.
But it isn’t only philosophers who get their influence. We are all constantly rubbing up against each other, influencing one another. In a gigantic cascade effect, these cumulative rub-on encounters agitate the whole system, like multiple pinballs being released in a game during a bonus round.
But writing isn’t merely about influence. It is an art form. It is a thing of beauty, a cry out against a cold and existentially void universe. When we write, we are creating a unique item that stands alone against all the trillions upon trillions of relatively similar possibilities that were never written up.
Stephen King believes that stories, for example, are pre-existing artifacts that one “digs up.” He compares it to being a paleontologist with a brush and hand tool, attempting to brush away dirt and dig away the hard-packed surrounding earth to get as much of the artifact out without breaking it. Sometimes the fossil is huge — a blockbuster epic of a novel, like The Stand was for King — and sometimes it is a small, dainty little piece, a little post on X that meets the eye and is gone in a twinkling.
I am not sure if I agree with King or not. I do know that I really like the notion, and that’s halfway to agreement. It is an elegant conceit, one that in no way diminishes the creative force doing the hand-digging work. For without the digger, the artifact would remain buried forever, unless someone else of similar temperament and ability came along.
If stories are like math, just “out there,” then nonfiction articles are like music, flooding our minds with new information in a melody of intellectual rapture. A good article hypnotizes in a way. It blocks off the rest of the universe, just as the writer of the piece ignores irrelevant sounds around him in the process of creation.
I love writing both fiction and nonfiction, but I tend to be in different moods when I do it. When I write stories, I am more expansive, gregarious (pun on my own name), wide-ranging in my thoughts. When I write articles I tend to be laser-focused, etching my words in the steel of Dark Sport for all to preview and ponder.
Poetry is more of a frothy, light-hearted endeavor. And the Facts that I sometimes lay down — I have written something like seventeen of them at this point — are a dominant frame of mind always accompanied by stirring male-only music.
I think the best thing we can say about writing is that it’s a fun effort that has the potential to stand the test of time. Writing that lasts is the end-goal of it all, so that new generations may find our works and be pleased by it.
living well
You only get to live once; you may as well live well.
Money is at the heart of it. I don’t think money is given enough appreciation. We all need it, but it is considered almost tacky to talk about our need. Like masturbating furiously but furtively in a darkened room, we don’t want the act calling attention to ourselves.
Good sex is like good money — another thing that should be talked about more. Far too many people are going without sex, and of the ones having it, it isn’t that great any more, or it’s interspersed with dry, incel bouts of nothingness.
Sex and money *winks*. Think about it.
Dark Sport 
Writing is also therapeutic; often, hidden parts of ourselves emerge while writing, freeing us from obsessions or apparent problems. And writing can also make us travel. If we imagine writing a text featuring a white beach and a turquoise sea, in that moment it will be like being there, we can almost smell the salty air…👍👍👍👍😉😊📚📖📖📖
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That’s right! I forgot about the mental values of writing! Thank you for pointing that out to me.
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As a writer, I connected with this one the most. Before I learned how to write, I liked to imagine stories and fantasy worlds. At the age of 8, I spent my first two full weeks away from home. It was my first time in a scout camp in a forest by an Alpine lake. At the last campfire, as part of scout tradition, the first-timers get a scout name. Mine was “storyteller”, because I used to tell stories to my tentmates before falling asleep. It was the time Battlestar Galactica was on TV, and I imagined our sleeping bags were the Vipers shooting down Cylon ships…
In High school philosophy class, I heard the first time idea of collective unconsciousness which was explained to me with the example of snowboarding (a new concept at the time). The first person who did it was struggling and, through trial and error, succeeded. After that, more and more people started practicing drawing from and adding to the collective experience of the first person who did it. I still find this idea fascinating, and it feels more true than pulling stories from a multiverse. I do agree that writers can tap into something other people don’t have access to. That’s why a lot of famous ones wrote their best stuff under some kind of influence.
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Great comment, Uri. Let’s unpack it a little.
I think that storytellers are more born than made, or at least inclined to being one. Many writers started writing as children. They honed their chops on the basic stuff before moving on to more advanced material in their teens and early twenties.
I don’t think you can become a writer before you’re an adult, and for most forms of really interesting writing you need to be somewhat into your adulthood, as well. Life experiences and general mental state — ability to “connect” with other minds, realizing them on the page — are just too lacking.
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Are you familiar with this guy?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Paolini?wprov=sfti1#
There’s more for sure but he’s An example that there are exceptions. I do agree you have to feel it in your bones. Storytelling that is. Then it depends on many things what form of expression are you going to choose. Writing is the most accessible since all you need to start is something to write and your imagination.
Since I sense we’re both a bit older we understand the importance of life experiences. Therefore I’m fascinated by young authors who have created classes in their 20s. They must have been tapping into something beyond their knowledge and experience.
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The name rings a bell, but he’s not an author I’m intimately familiar with.
You’re right — we’re both a bit older. I think it’s an advantage, if you haven’t burnt yourself out by now. Authors in their 20s are fluking it, in my opinion. You can’t really write anything meaningful until you’re almost thirty. Stephen King wrote CARRIE when he was 26, SALEM’S LOT when he was 27… That seems to be the sweet spot for beginning talent.
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Paolini was 15 when he started writing his first novel which was published when he was 19. French director and screenwriter Luc Besson wrote a story as a teenager that he later turned into cult classic The Big Blue.
Prešeren (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_Pre%C5%A1eren?wprov=sfti1). the most important Slovene poet, wrote his most popular poems in his mid 20s.
The way King writes it seems he’s inspired a lot by local people. He must have spent time in the community (parks, stores, fairs, markets, bars and restaurants) observing people’s interactions. Today a lot of interactions happen online. I’m not sure if that means it’s easier or harder to gage a true pulse of the society and individual characters…
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this is so good and true, Greg that I’ve bookmarked it so I can reread whenever I want ; I like King’s conceit: it rings true ; ps I love that pun on ‘gregarious’ 🙂 🙂 🙂 how sharp of you to notice that !
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What a delightful piece of flattery! To be bookmarked and reread! I’ve never had anyone say anything quite so kind and generous to me.
I’ve reedited the website’s fonts and headers, and changed the tagline to fit, so that the site has a more contemporary look. I like it a lot. Keep dropping by and commenting … your words are my balm.
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