I like to write.
Realistically, it's the one thing I've ever been any good at. I'm decent at a lot of things, but I've always enjoyed writing more than just about anything else.
Which is not to say that it doesn't take a lot of work and sincere effort.
These days, too many people seem to be under the impression that they can sling a few thousand words onto a sheet of paper, and BAM, they're a writer. I say that not only is that incorrect, it is an insult to writers everywhere. Such a person would be a writer only in the most literal sense, as 'one who writes'. But a true writer has to be so much more than that. I truly believe you need natural talent as well as acquired skill in order to be more than just proficient at anything.
I would love to be able to draw or paint, but I sadly lack any sort of artistic ability in that department. There is only so much that tutors can teach you, and I lack talent and vision. I have no delusions. I could whip up some acrylics and paint a flower on a canvas just fine, but that doesn't make me an artist. All it shows is that I've produced a work that means absolutely nothing, in any sense. Plodding endlessly away in a field where you have no passion or talent is a waste of time and a torment to the people that are dedicated to their craft.
So, no, I couldn't use paints to create a picture that would touch anyone. But with words, I can. I think it is easier than using paints, in some ways, because you might mix four colors together in tiny amounts for hours to get just the right hue, but I can find it in a moment in a word. Some artists are brilliant enough to make their art come alive so perhaps the viewer can hear the wind and feel the sun, but I want my reader to feel everything, see everything, touch everything, taste everything. I want them there, seeing everything inside my head and inventing things where my imagination has left off. I want them to not even know the difference between what I've put there and what they've put there. That is the magic that words can possess.
I love words. I love the sound of them, the look of them, the feel of them, the meanings, the synonyms, the antonyms...everything. Words have very special, particular meanings. Words fit together in certain ways just like puzzle pieces. If you use the right one, it slides into place almost seamlessly, and you've added another element to the mental picture you're painting. But when you use the wrong one, you may just as well have not written anything at all.
It also seems that not many other people have a passion for words. They constantly want to change them into something they're not and put them to use in ways for which they were never intended. When you change the meaning of a word, you obliterate its history.
For example, take the word 'decimate'. The original meaning was 'to reduce by a tenth'. But even the dictionary now states that 'to destroy entirely' is an appropriate usage of the word. Few people still understand that the original usage of this word was a reference to a punishment of Roman soldiers - killing every tenth man. And just like that, a part of history is lost.
I pity people who don't enjoy reading. There are books that I don't enjoy and books that I could almost swallow whole. But everything you read adds a little bit of itself to you in ways that you don't understand until they start changing you in ways you never thought they could. Maybe one teaches you a few new words; maybe another teaches you a few new ideas. Books change you. Knowledge empowers you. Every little bit you learn expands your mind and your horizons.
The thing that most people don't understand is that books are everything. They're time machines, airplanes, food for the mind, language, art, history, whatever you could possibly want. I honestly don't think I could live in a world without books. There is so much I want to discover, so much that I want to learn, and so many places I want to see that I probably will never see in my life except in my imagination.
So write if you like it, if you're good at it, if you want to improve, but always respect books and words and writers.
Maybe everyone else will live fabulous lives and make history.
But we're the ones that will tell the stories of it all.
On a lighter note, happy new year everyone.
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