WHAT IT MEANS
TO BE A WRITER
by Best-Selling Author Dylan Stark Le Maire
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WRITING, LIKE LIFE...
IS ALWAYS A WORK
IN PROGRESS.
IS ALWAYS A WORK
IN PROGRESS.
I first began to write when I was four years old and had been reading since the age of three. I loved both and was strongly encouraged by my mother and her parents/my grandparents and that began to immediately develop in me a love for learning, about EVERYTHING, the love for exploring, for realizing that learning like life is one hell of an adventure.
THAT HAS NEVER CHANGED. PERIOD. Whether virtually traveling to the far-flung corners of the globe as I have OR merely reading about them (or watching videos and documentaries as I also do) IT IS ALL SERIOUS ADVENTURE.
IT IS:
so sad to me when adults and even teenagers tell me they neither enjoy reading nor do they even know how to read. My GOD, how do they get by even in normal everyday life. Reading is pretty essential to achieving ANY success in life even if only for oneself and to never be able to do that to any degree is beyond sad.
I remember writing short stories at the age of four and not that long ago found a box of some along with a lot of my schoolwork going back even to elementary school. That was a fun read. (Mother never threw ANYTHING away, obviously. for I even found a lot of HER stuff from early on).
It of course was pretty rudimentary and unsophisticated but it was what came and it also is what helped develop the writing that followed even to this day. An adventure I saw it as and thoroughly enjoyed it. I remember reading some works in progress to my childhood pals, and got good reviews even though they were hardly the sophisticated highbrows they all eventually became I AM SURE. (LOL).
As I scanned a few precious tidbits, I became quickly aware that even from that early age these stories were indeed STORIES. How I knew how is beyond me EXCEPT that I had become an avid reader over a year before. MONKEY SEE MONKEY DO I guess.
No two people or at least rarely begin the same way and the only REAL important thing is TO BEGIN. AT ANY AGE, BEGIN...and paddle around in the shallow waters of your mind and explore what seems worthy of sharing in written form. OR even share in verbal form what is in your mind about whatever the subject matter is and see the reaction you get.
DO NOT settle for one reaction or reaction to one story you write or you won't get an accurate virtual reaction to the fullness of your imagination and that is what you want.
ALSO, upon getting reactions from others explore your own too. You may never become a Shakespeare but nobody has to. If YOU derive pleasure, so be it. You and a few others, so be it. It is not necessary to be read by the masses, or even the messes. Being read can be a singular and solitary endeavor and for some that is enough. FOR ME IT WAS. I never published until fairly recently. I NEVER EXPECTED (nor even particularly wanted) to be a best-selling author internationally, but of course I am. BUT that was really by accident rather than by design. LOL. You could say I fell into it.
Better the best-seller list than the pile of dogshit it could easily have been. HAHAHA.
I can tell you one thing. Writing for me has given ME ENORMOUS pleasure and I am definitely grateful. Now that I know that others enjoy what I write too, that is a bonus beyond mere pleasure or simple gratitude.
WRITING HAS NEVER BEEN FOR ME ABOUT THE MONEY, nice as writing being profitable is. But, NO. IT is the notion that you can reach inside yourself, pull up and out a slice of your creativity, your imagination, your artistic streak, and give pleasure to others. THAT IS BEYOND MERE TINGLIES. THAT is AWESOME TO ME and what is important is the sharing of the process hopefully to give others the inspiration to see for themselves what being literate can do for them. You can NEVER achieve any success in life without literacy at the cornerstone of you. YOUR LIFE should be predicated on the desire to succeed, for yourself, and to amass whsatever KNOWLEDGE (rather than mere money) and PERSONAL SATISFACTION you can for YOU.
ONE THING I HAVE LEARNED. AGE IS NEVER NOR SHOULD IT BE, A BARRIER TO LEARNING AND ACHIEVING. Grandma Moses became a prolific successful painter, AT THE AGE OF 83. She had never painted before that. AWESOME, and if you are 83 or 3 or whatever IT IS NEVER too late or too early. I started at the age of 3, she at 83. SEE? Age is as in everything else TOTALLY IRRELEVANT. It is what you do when it is your time and the effort you put into whatever you want to do.
Of course writing is only one thing I do. I read, write, teach, create websites and do business consulting and compose music and...
I NEED A NAP.
LOL.
But that is me. The adventure in life is to me what drives me. That won't be the same for you I'm sure but that is again irrelevant. What is important FOR YOU is what is important TO YOU...and if you begin or not before that gift and desire disappear.
CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 3
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