Writing has given me enjoyment when there should have been pain
Writing has been both an occupation and an obsession for me. Helping me through the darkest of times, it is something that still guides me.
It is a human thing to do - reading but what happens to this habit when there are no writers? People crave new content all the time and lucky for them, writing can become just as addictive as reading. So it is through compulsion that many of us write for an audience that can be terrifyingly small. But that’s the point. If even one person reads your work then you have shared your mind - be it creative fiction or personal stories. Writing and reading is a wonderfully symbiotic relationship. All writers are readers also.
I had found at one point in my life that writing creatively helped me cope with the increasing pressures of an undiagnosed mental health condition. I wasn’t doing it therapeutically. I had an ok job producing content for an agency. It wasn’t groundbreaking but I was being paid to write. Of course, I still had creative ambitions when it came to art and writing.
My art and writing became my outlet (you can visit my gallery here) in an increasingly manic world. Only I didn’t know that it was mania I was experiencing. All I knew is that I was productive, or at least I felt productive. I won’t go into my personal problems in this post, except to say times were hard. Through it all I kept writing and I kept working on my trilogy of music video based stories (it was a dumb obsession). BUT it kept me going and I think that was important.
Sometimes we have something we want to say to the world. Artists and writers are often very strange introverts who somehow also ask for the attention of others. They prefer to be alone in their thoughts yet share those thoughts with others who then go on to have their own, unique thoughts. Perhaps that is why writing (and reading) can be so healthy and beneficial for us. It exercises the brain.
The one thing I have always thought about anything terrible that has happened in my life is at least I’ll have something to write about.
How has writing or reading influenced your life?
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