2 AM and I'm still awake, writing a song
If I get it all down on paper, it's no longer inside of me,
Threatening the life it belongs to
Threatening the life it belongs to
Have you ever written something so intense that it consumed you, that if you didn't get the words out, they would eat you up from the inside, threatening your life?
Part of being a writer is learning how to take the emotions you feel and turn them into words, to let them cascade down into your fingertips and come out. Sometimes it's impossible to stop the waterfall once it starts and you write for hours, spilling words endlessly, and other times, it's too hard to turn the tap and you just can't face it. But there will come a time when you have something so powerful to say that it eats you alive until you've said it, either verbally or with your pen, and once you do, you'll know that you have done what you came here to do. Even if you don't write serious pieces, even if you prefer to write lighter stories, you will still experience this need to share. It will touch someone's heart. It might give someone else the courage to speak up. It was what the world around you needed to hear at that moment.
Don't be afraid of it. Just write, and you will discover a whole new strength in being brave enough to take that plunge.
6 comments:
I feel the same way. Some of my books are serious women's drama, and others I've outlined are just LOL funny chick lit. But no matter what the genre was, it was just pushing to get out, bugging me until I finally gave in and outlined the book. Great post, Tristi!
Tristi, you are just full of awesome. That was a beautiful post.
That's so true. It was just that line that made me fall in love with that song. And the next phrase:
I feel like I'm naked in front of a crowd, 'cause these words are my diary screaming out loud, and I know that you'll use them however you want to.
Yeah. I've felt that.
And just think, when I hear that song, it very often IS two am.
But I hear you, and that would explain why I never sleep, but how I've been so creatively productive lately too. Didn't finish my scene last night--but got a good five pages before 3:00 rolled around. *shrugs* I'll finish pounding it out today.
I hear you. I find it funny though how what sets me free also scares the *bleep* out of me :)
Love this. And that song, the first time I heard that lyric I completely understood. Whether its a full blown compulsion to write it down, NOW, or an insistent nudge to just consider this possibility please, it sure feels great to get it down, explore it, release it. And like you said, who knows that the compulsion has a purpose.
Thanks, Tristi!
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