Allen Whitt

Posted 10 Years Ago

Do you have to write?

By that, I mean do you feel compelled to write? Is writing something that you want to do everyday, hours at a time, and to the exclusion of many other things?

That's the way I feel about writing. It's not hard for me, especially. That doesn't mean that it always flows off my keyboard effortlessly, like water downhill. It can be, and often is, very hard and challenging work. But I almost never get completely stuck; no writer's block.

Are you like me? Do you feel the way I do? Does writing work like that for you?

A little context for my own case. I am 73. I have seen many things, experienced many things, done many things, been just about in every part of the globe--Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, Central America, and in virtually every country in North America, as well as about 48 States.

So, there are many things I could write about, as essays, memoirs, poetry--both prose and rhyming--short stories that are true or fictional, or somewhere in between. I seem to never run out, maybe even have too many.

I love the process more than almost everything--sometimes even more than any other pastime or entertainment. Writing is creative, profound, moving, challenging, stimulating, and much more. Other things--and, I am ashamed to admit, even most reading--seem dull and of minimal interest by comparison. 

I recently completed my first novel, even though I had never before imagined that 
I would write a novel, or actually any fiction (I spent 40 years as an academic). I was amazed to find how much I liked doing it, how much I learned from it, both in a technical sense, as well as how much I learned about myself, about others, and about our common human experience. It helped me to better connect with myself, with others, with nature (I love to write about natural wonder and beauty) and most everything, even the power of words and language.

In other words, with writing you can go inward, as well as expand into the world, even the universe.

So, there you have it. I am obsessed with writing. I want to learn more about it, to do evermore competent writing, to share what I know, what I see, what I feel.

Of course, at 73 there is a heightened sense of time passing, and I want to give something to others, and leave something behind about this strange, eventful journey we are all on.

Am I unbalanced, out of the normal range of behavior, whatever that may mean--for a writer, at least? Or normal, in some sense? Are you a fellow traveller? Or are we on different paths?

Are you like me?