Why writing? That’s the question.
Why not paining, sculpting, singing, playing an instrument, and any other creative outlet?
Writing is simple, like running.
One takes a pen and paper, a phone, a tablet, lap top, or anything else that contains and conveys words, and lays them down.
For running it’s a pair of shoes.
If that makes me simple, so be it.
But this simple baby boomer, like so many boomers, is looking for meaning in all the right places.
Maybe it’s my age. Aren’t all seventy year olds looking for meaning?
This shocking update: So is everyone else.
If I can’t find it in writing, mine or anyone else’s, then it doesn’t exist, which might sound a little closed minded.
A quick explanation:
All movies come from writing.
They come from an original script, or from an adapted story already written down.
Music is written down in notes, painting written in color, but writing is down and dirty, black and white.
What you see is what you get, if what you’ve got are directions.
In good writing, what you see is what you feel, and what you feel compares to the same feelings listening to a great piece of music, performing a great piece of music, gazing at a painting, or painting your own canvas, cardboard, piece of wood, or wall.
Mel Brooks had a great line in Springtime:
They say Churchill was a painter. He was nothing compared to Hitty. Two room apartments, second floor, two coats, one day. Now that’s a painter.
A Sense Of Place
Heartfelt writing gives a sense of place, a yearning for home, a better world.
An underdog finally wins.
A great man falls and finds true meaning.
A bad man does good things.
We’ve all read, or seen, these stories in books and on the screen.
Call them tropes, stereotypes, or lazy writing, but when they hit right they hit hard.
Listen to Jack London’s ‘To Build A Fire.’
Or, watch it.
Read it, too.
Why Writing For Me
We all hear about staying sharp in the brain, about puzzles, and quizzes, and the like.
Try writing something coherently, something with a beginning, middle, and end; something with a funnel, a stanza, a rhyme.
Now rewrite if from another perspective, another point of view.
Write about the background, the foreground, the mid-ground.
If you’re a baby boomer blogger, write about millennials; if you’re a millennial blogger, write about boomers.
It’s a rich topic either way.
A recent comment asked why I do this, why I write boomerpdx.
I didn’t have a great answer, and I’ve been thinking about it.
Last Saturday my wife pointedly asked me to spend time with her. And I did, instead of writing.
She’s never asked, I’ve never thought to volunteer.
We both understand my routine: make a cup of tea and get on with it.
It was a sweet day together because of writing, or not writing.
Married people in love can do such things.
Would it have mattered if I’d been doing anything else?
Probably not, but since it was a choice between writing time, or honoring marriage?
Now we both know where I stand.
So start writing and let everyone in the neighborhood know you’d appreciate them more if they kept quiet.
Then shut the door and pick up where you left off.
A man spoke into his phone while he held a moist glass of beer on a rainy day.
“What are you doing,” a guy asked.
“Taking notes.”
“That’s what I figured. I do the same thing. Want to see a piece of my work?”
“I do.”
“I’m no writer, and it’s not very good, but it’s got something.”
“Let’s see.”
I read three short paragraphs on his phone and finished my beer.
“What do you think?”
“I think you should read Jack London’s ‘To Build A Fire.'”
“You like it?”
“I do. Now you can make it better. Do that and you’re a writer.”
About David Gillaspie
You are spot on about writing. It can free one’s mind of troubles, or personal conflict that is swimming in your head.
To put it down on paper or in notes on your phone, watch it come to life and maybe have it inspire another person, gives it great power.
It is great therapy, and a healthy way to communicate with yourself.
Well done!
And you took a day to spend time with your wife, giving you more to write about.
My dear wife likes to say wouldn’t have anything go write about if not for her.
I like that, but she’s not the troubling part.
One writer was asked their opinion on something and they said,”I don’t know, I’ll have to write it out to know what I think.”
Thanks for being a loyal reader, Debbie.