Writers and their Stories
“I possess within me the universal human capacity to create.”
Recently, I came up with this quote while thinking about the miracle of human creation, how I feel so much more fulfilled because of it, and why there is a sense of purpose in being a writer.
Nevertheless, I admit, I write way less than I’m supposed to in this information age — there are endless things to consume on the internet that there barely leaves anytime for creation.
The activation energy to drop the first blob of ink on the daunting blank page is kind of scary, and the momentum is hard to get on, but I still believe in it because there is nothing more amazing than arranging the 26 alphabets in my way.
Everyone learns it, but not everyone does it. And it’s quite a tragedy.
Somehow I feel writers are in pursuit of a more fulfilling, purposeful life.Writers write stories, be it theirs, or fictional ones they create. How can living a life of monotony and ennui be a story worth penning down?
Only stories that are different — filled with adversity and breakthroughs, anguish and bliss, ups and downs — are worth writing down, and shared with the world. And everyone should be in pursuit of that because I believe everyone can live a life they love.
No one wants to read a book or a biography of a man who just wakes up, gets ready, goes to work, gym, and heads home in 600 pages, and at the end of the page, he wasn’t happy with his life. We want to hear about the story of the Syrian girl who swam her way from a war-torn country to the Olympics.
We want to hear about the story of people battling their inner demons, how they encountered numerous setbacks but persevered, how they gave up everything and travelled to another land to find what they have been searching for.
As a writer I feel like I have a duty to live a life worth reading, a life that is inspiring, even if it is to just one person.
Because I believe the purpose of human existence is to engage and feel as deeply in the miracle that is human consciousness.
People on Medium have so many stories of their own, and upon closer inspection, they all have certain facets of their life worth reading. James Altucher comes to mind about his failures throughout his life — which could be one of the greatest things I’ve read. So do many more people, they have all been writers because they are living/have lived a life that is worth so much for us to learn from.
Some parts of his life are definitely shitty, but he did what a human was supposed to do — to engage and feel deeply in the miracle that is human consciousness.
And I believe that is something worth envying. Without his setbacks and failures, he would never have been who he was, he would have never written such an amazing story, and many people would have never been inspired.
So whenever anyone shudders at the thought of writing, I would think:
Your whole life is a story, why would you not want to be a writer? It’s up to you to write it as amazing as you can.
Thank you for reading! This article is originally published on Medium, 9 August 2016
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