Finding Something to Write About

Most people complain because they don't have the idea. They embrace the idea that their muse has left them and they are lost and alone in a work of jumbled words--waiting for something to come together to make sense before their mind explodes and they are left with the ashes of plain nothingness.

Others complain they don't have the time. Life is too full of events and activities that claim the spare moments they used to take and express themselves. There is a want for a pen. A want to feel the white grains caress the palm of their hand as they draft pages upon pages of thoughts they couldn't keep bottled up any longer.

I'll admit that I've suffered from both. I felt like my muse had left me. I felt alone and a longing for a character to whisper a small fragment that I could weave into a full-blown idea.

I also suffer from not having enough time. Being a student is never easy (unless you take putt classes). And the further along you pursue your degree, the less time you have. You add obligations. You get elected to be in charge. You take upper level course. You build on relationships. You start relationships. You ask yourself why do you still have high school drama in your life. You work. You don't sleep. You go and go until you're exhausted and think you can't go any farther…

And then you go some more.

It's a hard life.

But everyone does it.

And there are those other moments. The ones that are rarer. They are usually of the writer's own accord. Those are the moments when you don't want to write. It's not because the inspiration is gone. It's not because there isn't time. It's something much more. Something deeper.

It's a loss of the will to write.

Sad, I know. But so often true.

For some writers this is paralleled by a loss of the will to go on. Depression has set in and you are slowly losing your mind.

For others it's a loss of self-worth. They think their writing holds no value. They think every word scribbled on paper is nothing. There's not merit. It's just trash.

And this is what kills the writer.

Everyone can write. I don't care if they believe it or not. They can. It's finding the right thing to write about. Each person can say something in a way that no one else can. They hear and see words in a way no one ever thought of. Each person is individually unique.

I'm always awed when I read a post by a woman who's blog I follow religiously. She struggles up and down with depression and other social disorders. But she fights to write. She found what she needed to write about and she made her story heard. I can only endeavor to one day be like that. To stand up and tell the world that I have something important to say in regard to myself.

But until then, I'll just write on a thought that comes to mind. Hoping that someday I'll be able to help someone the way others have helped me.

Until then I leave you with words of wisdom.

A friend of mine once said something in class that I'll never forget. One young woman told a group of us that the story we were reading was not her best. She had reservations about the whole project. He looked blatantly at her and told her, "Embrace your trash."

So this is my encouragement to you. Find something to write about. Write it. No one will see it the way you do. No one will feel it the way you do. Write about it. Talk about it. Tell the world. Even if it ends up no good, keep it. Hold it for everyone to see. Keep it for no one to see. It's yours.

Live for it.

And embrace your trash.