Why Writing is Hard

   
There's a reason that almost everyone who starts a blog eventually either strays away from it for a few months, or gives it up completely.

Writing's hard.

I have written two meaningful posts on this blog in the last two months.  And it's mostly because every time I sit down at the computer and on the off chance click the blogger bookmark, my mind goes blank.  Deeper thoughts or meaningful conversations that ran through my brain during the day or week immediately evaporate and I'm left staring at a computer screen.  Yes, there are little quips that pop up from time to time, but those are much more suited for facebook (one of the reasons facebook and twitter are so popular: lots of people have something interesting to say in a sentence or two, much less people have something interesting to say in a paragraph or two.)

And why?  Because writing's hard.

I've come to learn this very well.  Writing is a strange action.  It's getting an intangible idea, emotion or thought from your chaotic and unorganized brain, out into a series of structured words that will relate well enough for someone else to comprehend.  ...Yikes!  That's like trying to describe what a wisp of smoke looks like.  Musicians and artists are in the same boat.  How can you take the strum of strings or pounding of keys and turn it into a song that speaks to someone?  How can you take a paintbrush or a pencil and turn a canvas into an expression that affects someone in a meaningful way?

Because writing's hard.

Writing is, in itself, getting what's in... out.  And as humans we all know that that is very difficult.  There is something that just ... blocks the path from in to out.  It's almost as if the curse stops us from fully sharing the deep parts of ourselves with others.  Because if we could do that, we might love each other more.

So I struggle through my books, I draw blanks when I pull up my blog, I go over the wording of a text for a few minutes.  Why?  Because I can't seem to make the zigzags in my brain straight enough for anyone else to understand.

 And because writing's hard.