4 Ways To Make Sure You Stay A Writer For Life.
Art For Art's Sake: Vol 2 Part 17
In one of my earlier essays, I dived deep into the meaning of being a writer for life. Today, I'd like to add to it by sharing what I am doing to make sure I stay a writer for life.
Be The Observer
This is one skill I believe we must have as writers. The simple job of writers (of any genre) is to make sense of the world through their own lens. This means you have to be an observer of the life around you. That is where you find new ideas, connect the dots, find examples for your theories, experiment and record your results. And this practice feeds your writing.
Be Compassionate
... towards others and yourself.
As humans, we have the innate nature of being judgmental. That's just one of our biology's ways of making sense of the world. But staying in the judgmental mental space is a choice we make. Since you are an observer of life, you must also be compassionate. We can't let our likes and dislikes cloud our observations. We need to try and see the complete range of designs that human-kaleidoscopes can make. It won't happen in one shot, but it's worth the shot.
As for ourselves, we need to be like nurturing and encouraging parents. Writing, like life, has its own ups and downs, and having our own support and being our own best friend is a gift we must give ourselves.
Take Care
Just like athletes care for their health and the health of the pursuit, we must care for our health and our pursuit of writing. Give your body frequent breaks from sitting all day, and do something fun to move your body. Give your mind a break from all the thinking and figuring things out, and give it the joy of silence or something soothing. Give your soul a break from being on purpose all day, and let it relax into just being. And make sure to fill your inner creative well with activities and people that tickle your curiosity. It'll help you give others the same feeling through your creativity.
Don't Stop
Many times throughout your life, you'll question yourself and your decision to be a writer. In those moments, always remember - you wouldn't have got this dream if you didn't have what it takes to achieve it.
It may be a slow process; it may be a long process. You try things and fail. You'll also try something and see it work. The point is as long as you are making the tiniest little bit of progress each day towards your writing dream, you're doing a good job. And the days when you cannot do anything, take this as Universe's permission to take a day off and try again the next day. Just don't stop.
