On Writing

Sometimes words find me. I may not be actively searching for any ideas to write, but then they just come to my mind and it's like they beg me to write them. Sometimes their voices are very strong and the longer I postpone writing those words, the stronger they become and the clearer they get. They won't leave me alone until I write them down. As if they kept on saying, "Write us! Write uuuusss!" over and over and over again.

Other times I struggle to put all the pieces together into a post, because I may be still be wondering how to end the post or I may still be trying to think of all the pieces in that post and still not sure of the best way to convey what I want to say in one particular post. The subject matter may be touchy or complex or it may be about an ongoing problem to which I have no answer(s) yet. 

There are also occasions when I read someone else's blog post and then the post awakens another post within my mind. I especially love being enlightened by someone else's post that prompts me to write a post of my own. The post I read may shift, change, or widen my perspective or it may even be teaching me new stuff that I never knew before.

And let's not forget those posts that I leave half-finished in my draft. Sometimes I do get back to those half-written posts and finish them, but other times I just leave them be because the mood has changed and it's almost impossible to go back to writing with the same tone of voice or depth of feelings. It's a bit of a shame whenever I lose the chance to capture the moment (the tone of voice or the depth of feelings). 


glitter-graphics.com
I LOVE getting inspirations out of nowhere at the weirdest time of any day, though the problem with this kind of inspiration is that they may come right before I fall asleep or even in the middle of sleep (I wake up to pee and before I go back to sleep, the words find me) and when that happens, I get too lazy to get up and write them down (especially if I have work the next day), so what I try to do is just repeat them several times in my brain and tell my brain to remember at least the gist of the post and the next day I try to quickly transform them into a post. However, I have also lost plenty of posts because I leave it too long or I don't repeat the ideas several times and things happen and the words leave me after a while. That is a shame, but at least every once in a while I read someone else's writing that does remind me of those thoughts and I enjoy experiencing those moments, as well.

There are also those rare occasions when I just click on "write a blog post" and start from scratch without any specific idea what I'm about to write. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. Sometimes my writing ideas start from a subject matter that I haven't exactly developed yet in my brain, but when I start writing about it, the words just flow out without any restraint.

All in all, I have always loved writing, but I LOVE it even more now than ever before. Writing has been very cathartic and it's also allowed me to connect with other people. Words have substantial power, not just for other people, but also for yourself. How about you? How do you find ideas to write? Do words also find you sometimes?


P.S. Here's my latest creation in the weekly challenge group that I've joined in. The incident I described below happened in High School.

Weekly Challenge: Fear

Stay calm, Amel. Picksomebodyelsepicksomebodyelsepicksomebodyelse....

He looked around the room and then I heard him say my name.

ShitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitSHIIIIIIIIITTTTT!!!!

I got up from my seat, walked a few steps forward, got up the two steps of the long wooden platform, picked up a piece of chalk, and tried to think of a solution to the tricky Math equation on the blackboard.

Think, brain! Which formulas should I choose to break this down? THINK FAST!!! I don't want him to yell at me!

Famous for his temper, when the teacher yelled at us, his voice carried through the neighbouring classrooms and I certainly didn't want to be the victim of his wrath.

I started writing down the solution to the equation, though I wasn't sure at all whether it was the right one. The hand that gripped the chalk started to feel damp. Forty pairs of eyes were focusing on me.

Ugh. What next? I'm stuck!

The teacher got up from his seat, walked across the length of the room, opened the door of the classroom, clasped his arms in front of his thin body, and looked out.

I could see his movement from the corner of my eyes and when I realized that he wasn't looking at me, I slowly turned around and tried to make some frantic-yet-discreet S.O.S. signals to my seatmate because she was brilliant at Math. Alas, she had no time to help me because the teacher started turning around to face the classroom again.

I wrote something down, erased it, then wrote something else, then erased it. Tick tock tick tock tick tock...He closed the door, walked back towards his seat and sat down. I didn't know what else to write. A few seconds later, I felt a mini earthquake.

Oh no, an earthquake at this exact moment? You've gotta be kidding me! No, no, no, focus on the equation! The teacher's staring at you now! OK OK OK OK OK. Stop the earthquake already!!!! It's ruining my concentration! GRRRRRRRR!!!!! How can I solve this bloody equation?

Wait a minute! How come the entire class is so calm then even though the earthquake hasn't stopped yet? Hmmmm...but I can still feel the tremors...what the?

HOLY SMOKES! So the culprit is my own legs!!! ARRRGGGHHH!!! Help meeeeeee!!!

With legs still buckling on the wooden platform, the teacher breathed out a deep sigh and finally told me to sit down.

Phew!