What's with this need to write?

[ajcap]

I'm finding that I love the whole process of pouring out my soul, then rewording, rearranging and re-editing to make my point. Does anyone else feel this way?

Sometimes. Most of the time the whole process just chucks me into a fountain of frustration where I wallow until it's time to crawl into bed and stick my thumb in my mouth. But I live for the 'sometimes' that happens.

Kind of like golf.

And the 'sometimes' is happening a lot more now that I write every day, and not just when inspiration hits. If you can only write when the inspiration hits you, then you are limiting yourself. Someone learning to play the guitar does not play only when inspiration hits, he has to learn the chords first. So sit and write a paragraph every day of any interesting person who walked into your bar the previous evening. Lord knows you must see enough of them.

Practice, practice, practice.

[Kelly]

Well, do not feel alone about being driven, in some sense, to write.  I am a poet by nature, and have been writing since I was very small.  For me, words wrap themsevles around the sinapses in my brain, or at least that's what it feels like, and they just stay there, bugging me, sometimes it feels like what it might feel like if there were ping pong balls buzzing around in my head...I call it percolation.  At some point, I have to find a minute or an hour or a quiet moment when I can get them down on paper...and then there is silence, and peace.  It never lasts long, though, and the process starts again.  I seem to be driven by some innate force that often finds me up at odd hours just pouring it out on paper, or at clubs, on napkins, or whatever I can find.  I have found,  however, over the years, that I must find a way to channel that force and write everyday in order to be a successful writer.  Even if I am just rewriting the last night's shambles and forming them from jibbering madness into something more coherent, at least I'm writing.  It's still really hard, but like the discipline needed to hone any craft, is worth it in the end.  As far as inspiration is concerned, for me, a lot of it does come from my love of the natural world,yet a great deal of it comes from just observing the people around me.

[DebD.]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!  I wasn't very clear on the point that I only write when inspirations hits.  I do write something almost daily, but it is usually just little snippets.  When I get what I think is a good idea, I will sit and scribble for hours, but that does not happen every day.  As usual, I am awake at 1:30 a.m. because I just got home from my bartending job.  The things I have experienced this evening justify what I have written about for my assignment 3, so I hope it will be acceptable.  My inspiration comes largely from the people I encounter every day.  You just cannot make this stuff up!!  I wish I had started documenting these things years ago.  Thanks again,

Debbie