A lot of us like to write and some of us have blogs and other ways of self-expression, so I thought to start this thread to seek inspiration and give each other inspiration. not necessarily a thread to share your writing, but if you want to, go ahead. Just a place to discuss writing and your methods of writing, etc.
When I write autobiographically I love writing stream-of-consciousness because it's the best way of letting go and really expressing yourself, like there are no reservations, nothing holding you back and you just say what you have to say and fuck it. I find it very extremely therapeutic, just putting your thoughts out there, raw and exposed, like an open wound out for the germs and the bacteria to devour.
Even when I write poetry I try to write it as soon as it comes into my head so that I don't forget it and forget the essence of it, because sometimes I have the idea but I lose the particular words and I feel that it changes drastically and the original poem is gone, forever gone and will never come back. And I really don't like having certain meters or whatever. My poems are free flow and take their own shape, each individually. So they differ from poem to poem. One poem might be more rhyming than another, one might have more of a consistency, etc.
I've been trying to write a play but that really hasn't been going too well. Long term projects are just a hassle and you never really find time for them. But I really really need to do it. I already have the storyline and characters, etc., I just need to write it down. I bought a notebook specifically for the play and I just need to dedicate more time for it. But when you have so many things like schoolwork and volunteering and other stuff and even have many hobbies it's really hard to find time for each and every one of them... I've been trying really hard to organize my time and dedicate a bit for each per day/week, etc. Hopefully having this thread will help with that.
Here's a poem I love by the brilliant Charles Bukowski:
So You Want To Be A Writer
if it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
if you're doing it for money or
fame,
don't do it.
if you're doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don't do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
if you're trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.
if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you're not ready.
don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don't add to that.
don't do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don't do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.
when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.
there is no other way.
and there never was.
Topic: Writing