I’m pretty sure all of you know this, but for anyone who doesn’t, I’m a writer. Most of the time, that’s pretty cool. Sometimes, it’s nothi...

Thoughtful Thursdays: Three Wonderful Things About Writing

Alexa Mintah

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I’m pretty sure all of you know this, but for anyone who doesn’t, I’m a writer. Most of the time, that’s pretty cool. Sometimes, it’s nothing short of glorious. More often than that last one, it downright sucks.

But today, we’re only discussing the good things about writing (we’ll get to the bad next week, so stay tuned ;) )

1. The Questions

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a pantser, and as such, I’m never really sure where the story’s going during the first draft. Often, I have a beginning and an end, but getting from point A to point B is as exciting and unknown for me as for the reader the first time around. Sometimes, I don’t even know the ending. I recently started a Harry Potter fanfic with a simple question “What if Lily had forgiven Snape?” I started writing because I wanted to know what would happen, how their whole universe would change. Truth is, I’m still not sure, but I’m having fun finding out.

For me, it’s more like I’m discovering the story, rather than taking an active part in writing it. Sure there are times when I have to stop at a fork in the road and decide which way the characters will go, but more often than not, they tell me.

Normally, I hate not-knowing. But for writing, I adore it. I love the feeling of just being along for the ride, as unaware of what will happen next as the people I’ve created and come to love. A bit nerve-wracking? Well, yes. But still, it’s kind of awesome.

2. The Characters

Speaking of people I’ve created and come to love, character creation is one of my favorite parts of writing. Just the idea of being able to create a person, that does not by all technical laws of the universe exist, is amazing. That I can conjure up a being with my brain, get to know them until they feel as real to me as I do, then pour them out on a page for other people to (hopefully) love and fangirl over, is astonishing. That I have the audacity to try, and yet the potential to succeed, is one of the most magnificent and empowering feelings I’ve ever experienced. These people will make me smile, make me laugh, make me groan in frustration, shake my fist at the sky, and maybe even shed a tear or two. They will become real; they will become known; they will become alive. At least to me, if never to anyone else.

It’s mind-boggling. But it’s also beautiful.

3. The Unlimited Quality of the Imagination

This one kind of goes with the two above, but it encompasses them both and more. When scientists say that people only use 10% of their brain, a part of me believes them. Now I’m not sure we can all levitate or read minds or see the future, but when I use my imagination to create pictures and places, persons and predicaments, I’m amazed at the power of the human brain and imagination.

It’s like there’s something more for us. Like even if we can’t do anything from Race to Witch Mountain or I am Number 4, when we use the imagination, there are literally no limits. There is nothing, nothing, that you cannot do. Sure it’s not technically real, but that doesn’t mean it’s not incredible.

Maybe that’s why I write, to experience that unlimited quality of the imagination. To dive into worlds that don’t exist, to see into things that aren’t real, to become someone who never was, and share all that with the rest of the world. To tell all the stories running around in my head, then spread them across the globe.

And that, to me, would be the most wonderful thing of all.

Well, hopefully that didn’t sound too insane, but I think my fellow writers will get what I’m saying. ;) What are your favorite things about writing? Tell me in the comments!

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