Hi everyone! Today I’m going to be sharing something a little different with you – a guest post by Todd Sullivan, author of the Windshine Chronicles trilogy. He’s shared a lovely post titled ‘I do’ for us, all about his relationship and experience with writing. I hope you love it as much as I do (see what I did there…)!
I go back and forth on the question of love when it is posed to me.
“So, do you love writing? Do you write because you’re passionate about it?”
I often feel that people who are still working toward some ideal of author, much like teens who hold some romantic notion of relationships, speak about how much they love writing; how it’s something they can’t do without.
At the same time, I’ve read and listened to plenty of established writers say that you have to love writing in order to keep pushing forward towards greater levels of mastery and success. So where’s the distinction with these two different groups of people at different walks of life who pontificate on the love of the craft?
As I roll this question around in my head, the answer has lately been the same. I don’t like using the word ‘love’ for writing. Things I love are my parents, my brothers and sisters. Ascribing the word ‘love’ to the process of putting words on the page feels strange to me.
However, I am devoted to writing and its many manifestations. I am devoted to publishing, to conversing with other writers and learning about their own personal journey with the craft. I am devoted to teaching others what I have discovered about streams of thought and the mental blocks that keep it damned in the brain.
I’ve always found it curious how if you pose a question to a person, they can speak for many minutes on it, exhausting hundreds of words. Yet if you ask them to write the same answer down, the floodgates close in the face of a blank page.
Perhaps that shouldn’t be so surprising, however. Writing is relatively new to the human species. A quick google search shows that it began as cuneiform in Mesopotamia around 3400 BC and was developed into a writing system in China 1300 BC. Yet humans in our current form, Homo sapiens, have been around for 300,000 years. For almost our entire human history, we didn’t etch words down in any type of written form. It’s no wonder that people have such difficulty in doing an activity which was unknown of until relatively recent in human evolution.
The pursuit of writing is more like a marriage. There’s an intense spark of passion which initially sets it off. This lust for words eventually leads to a relationship, which ends with a proposal on one knee, ring in hand. But after marriage, you only maintain the union out of determination. You make a decision that this personal contract, which can be broken at any time, will be kept intact through good times, but more importantly, through the many bad times. No matter how often you may say you love something or someone, it’s devotion that keeps you together during the frequent periods of immense distress, pain, and those long dark winters of the soul that can pervade all artificially manufactured relationships.
To love family for one’s lifetime is one thing, as that’s a blood connection that goes to our physical cores.
To love a partner for the duration is something else.
At some early point in my life, I could have gone in many directions. Youth is envied because of the myriad paths that are open which slowly yet steadily close off as you get older. I came close to quitting writing many times throughout adolescence. My earliest breakup came when I was still in elementary school and despaired because the stories I wrote didn’t read like the stories of published authors. A silly concern, really, as published authors have been at the craft longer and have an entire industry editing their narratives. A single writer trying to make their work sound like a professionally published book is on a fool’s quest.
Invariably, in high school, I went back to writing, only to contemplate leaving it again in university when nothing I wrote got published no matter how many people in workshops across the years thought it was quite good. Like all intimate relationships, however, as time goes on it starts to become harder to imagine a life in which your partner isn’t there with you. And it becomes easier to get back together after a breakup, even if a lot of the motivational force has more to do with having become adapted to the presence of the person in your daily routine rather than any genuine like or attraction. Within the insubstantial nature of reality and the ever changing quality of life, having something stable is comfort in and of itself.
So do I love writing? Not particularly, but I can no longer imagine a reality in which I didn’t write. It has become another limb, an unseen attachment that cloaks me and has a reality and sentience of its own. A partner summoned from the ether, existing with life and agency, and to whom at some point in the past I said, “I do”.
Read And Review It 
This is such an interesting discussion on writing. While I’m certainly not an author (or wish to be) I do understand the need to put words to paper. For it to be my occupation, however, fills me with stress – the pressure of writing a second book would be very intense. I admire those that have the stories to tell and the guts to tell them. Great guest post!
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It definitely is, it was super insightful! I can completely understand that, I would find it super stressful too – I have a great respect and admiration for authors! Thank you so much for reading and commenting.
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This is such a interesting discussion on writing and how you feel about it. I’m not a author or anything like that but I when I’m feeling some kind of emotion, I love to put pen to paper and write about it. There’s something about writing a blog which has completely changed my feeling about writing in general. Thank you so much for sharing this! Xo
Elle – ellegracedeveson.com
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It definitely is, I really enjoyed it! I completely get that, writing is honestly the best outlet and I think writing a blog has definitely increased my passion too. Thank you so much for reading and commenting xx
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Such an interesting post! I definitely value the importance of putting pen to paper
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Thank you! Me too, it’s the best feeling. Thank you so much for reading and commenting!
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Todd’s final paragraph sums up a wonderful relationship with writing! As words are receptacles for emotion, it is impossible not to feel and, in feeling, wonder if the beauty in it outweighs the pain and makes it lovable?
I too cannot imagine a reality without writing. Ink is an extension of me. 🙂
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It truly does! I can’t imagine not writing either, I feel like it’s a part of me now. Thank you so much for reading and sharing your wonderful thoughts 🙂
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This was such a lovely guest post, I enjoyed reading it! Thanks so much for sharing!
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I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed it! Thank you so much for reading and commenting.
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Very interesting and thoughtful post. I enjoyed reading it! I cannot imagine myself without writing.
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Thank you, I’m really glad to hear that! Me neither, it’s definitely become a central part of my world. Thank you so much for reading and commenting.
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This is such an interesting topic and something that feels very relevant to me. I write but also sometimes I don’t enjoy it as such.
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Thank you! I’m really glad that you could relate to it, there can definitely be some more difficult points too. Thank you so much for reading and sharing your experience!
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This was a different and interesting read. I am not an author of a book but I do write for my blog and sometimes just in word docs. I have always loved writing and definitely am on the more creative side but I did enjoy Todd’s point of view of writing. Thanks for sharing x
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Thank you! I’m completely the same, although I’m really hoping to take things to next level and eventually progress to being an author! I’m really glad to hear you enjoyed it, thank you so much for reading and sharing your interesting experience x
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This is a really great post! I feel the same — I can’t imagine my life without writing. Thanks for sharing x
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Thank you! Me too, it would be so different – it’s crazy! Thank you so much for reading and commenting x
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This is such an interesting discussion, I can’t imagine a world where I didn’t write either! Thanks for sharing!
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Thank you! Yes, it’s crazy how big a part of our lives it can become. Thank you so much for reading and commenting!
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“As I roll this question around in my head, the answer has lately been the same. I don’t like using the word ‘love’ for writing. Things I love are my parents, my brothers and sisters. Ascribing the word ‘love’ to the process of putting words on the page feels strange to me.
However, I am devoted to writing and its many manifestations. I am devoted to publishing, to conversing with other writers and learning about their own personal journey with the craft. I am devoted to teaching others what I have discovered about streams of thought and the mental blocks that keep it damned in the brain. ”
This is the fist time I’ve seen someone talk about writing in such a way, to define what you have or feel for writing as devotion and not love. Although I am not a writer, I loved reading this post, very insightful 🙂
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Yes it’s definitely super interesting, I hadn’t seen it spoken about like this before either and I found it so insightful! I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed it, thank you so much for reading and commenting 🙂
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Hello! I have to say this is a very good post. Writing has been apart of my life since elementary school. I had a stuttering issue but writing helped me express better. I recently struggled with my love for writing through blogging because I was fixated on numbers. So I took some time off, now I’ve found my passion for it again. Thank you for this post!
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Thank you so much! I’m so glad to hear that writing helped you, it’s definitely helped me a lot too. I definitely get that, sometimes it can be a little disheartening but I’m glad you keep on doing what you love! Thank you so much for reading and sharing your own experience!
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