Everyone is. writer, or Should be - By Atul Singh

You really don’t “become” a writer,. You always were. You just drop the bad habit of not expressing yourself fully.

We all think thoughts. Beautiful,, ugly, memorable, inconsequential, magical, banal, all sorts of thoughts. What is interesting about them is that they are completely unique to us, like our fingerprints. However more often than not, we don’t think of them worthy enough to be shared with others. We need to change that, don’t we?

There are three reasons for everyone to write, to build that muscle of self expression that we so often have let atrophy away. 

Self Expression: 

It is the holy grail of good emotional health. We struggle to find avenues of self expression in our daily lives. Yes we express at work, at home, with kids, family etc all the time. But those are functional communications. What about the person whose feet touch the cold floor or soft carpet in the morning, one who feels the cool air and warm sunshine on their face, that person…the you in you that is burried under all of life’s baggage. Yes that person. She needs a voice, whether in her diary or in the pages of a novel she writes and publishes. There is just no alternate to that, for leading a rich prosperous happy life. 

Oh ! but what about music and art and that sort of thing. Aren’t they just as powerful means of self expression. Of course they are. But how many of us are trained to use them as vehicles. In addition, of those who sing and play instruments etc, or paint, how many really have the ability ot create original works based on their need to express. More often than not, we see them replaying the works of other truly gifted and trained artists who did created the original works. In writing, you can write a simple poem or a paragraph of narrative and be the author of an original piece of work, which surely can get better, with training and practice. 

Changing the World: 

We all want to. We all need to. And it happens mostly with the written word. Whether it is was Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” or Ronald Reagen’s “Break down this Wall, Mr. Gorbachev”; these words were written before they were spoken. Books like Fountainhead by Ayn Rand or Sapiens, that influenced me tremendously; or whether they are “Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx or the Bhagwat Gita… the ones that have changed the  world, for worse or better It has always been the power of the written word. 

Now where do we fit in, amongs all these world changers? Well, we do want to influence our own environment for the better don’t we. Why wouldn’t we write something to capture a beautiful thought, or an essay about what could be done differently about the environment or just an observation about inherent biases based on what we saw at the airport last time. Anything, that interests us, thoughtfully and cogently put, stands to change the reader, just a little bit. On top of that, clarifying our own thoughts that writing them down can do so effectively, stands to change us dramatically. 

Our Song

We need to sing our song. Unabashadly, without hesitation or delay. Own unique life journey, our experiences have moulded us into what we are. And so, we have a unique song. We sing it with our work, by engaging in our passion of sports, or arts; of cheering our sports teams, running business or charities. It’s all part of what we bring forth into the world. 

Writing gives us a way to put the spotlight into our heart a bit more. Into our insecurities, fears, triumphs.. what have you. Whether we pen it in our diaries or share with others, there is an ocean of tumult we all feel inside us. It needs to be let out, diffused sometimes and accentuated at other times. Sharing our fears with others may be hard, but we don’t have to share. We can write for ourselves. Other times, an epiphany, on the way to work or in the bathroom, in the hand of a trained writer can magnificantly enhance the lives of others. So, building the muscle of self expression in this way is a preparation to bring joy to the world that we are capable of, but not necessarily trained in. 

So let the journey begin. Let’s put together a few… in the privacy of our own journals or in blogs we can share. 

It just makes sense.