Prompt: In her essay "Fail Better," Zadie Smith says, "The very reason I write is so that I might not sleepwalk through my entire life." Why do you write? What does it do for you?
Response: Well, those are two good questions. I haven't written much of anything besides some prayer journaling, and sentimental greetings in birthday cards over the past year. Some of it was due to lack of time (or so I thought), some of it was laziness (easier to turn on a mindless tv show) and some of it was not knowing what to write about or where to write it...blank paper journal with a pencil, prompted journal with a pen, phone app, computer word document, blog. So many mediums, so many options and too many content ideas to know where to start. Well I found this prompted journal collecting dust on my bookshelf and decided to give it a go, again. Hoping the blog will help keep me a little more motivated as this is public for all to see. If you're reading and are a personal friend or family, please feel free to gently encourage/motivate me if I fall behind.
So why do I write.
I guess similarly to Zadie Smith, I want to write so that I have something to look back on. To remember the little details that might get lost in the fogs of memories. It's also a way for me to sift through thoughts, emotions and observations. To make sense of things, to draw conclusions and simply a place to brain dump . Maybe some day I'll be in a place to use my writing to positively impact others.
What does writing do for me.
It gives me an outlet to write everything I'm thinking, feeling and seeing and the ability to either share it or leave it for the eventual disintegration into the abyss. It's a stress-reliever, a memory-keeper and hopefully a catalyst to cause me to focus more on the things around me. In order to write about things, you must observe those things. Recognize their shape, color, smell, feel, sound, etc. You can't adequately describe an object or event without first taking notice of it.
Like Smith said, I don't want to sleepwalk through life.
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