Zen in the Art of Writing

“I want to be a better writer” is not a sentence I ever thought I’d say until I started reading a book that really spoke to me, that really inspired me. That made me think, whoa, I want to write like that.

I’ve always known that my writing isn’t the best. It’s perfectly fine, passable might be a better word, and I’ve been content with that. I can routinely chug along and write exactly what I need to, when I need to. But there have been times when I’m sitting at my desk with my hands on my head, staring at a piece of paper or at a computer screen, and it feels as though I’m wading through a chest high swamp while I’m getting thwacked by damp leaves and rubbery tree branches. Where I lose my train of thought at least half a dozen times per sentence. It’s brutal. I don’t like those times.

But there’ve also been times, though not as many, when I’ve found that very special spark. When pen and paper (or keyboard and monitor) combine and are set ablaze with words and ideas that are thrown from my hands like wood into a raging fire. I like those times. I want more of those times.

Until I started reading Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing, I was okay with sometimes struggling through the swamp. But now, now I want my words to catch fire, my ideas to reach the stars.

I created this website to practice writing, to practice putting ideas on a page, to practice crafting stories. I want to inspire. I want to be inspired. But most of all, I want people to think, whoa, I want to write like that.

I want to be a writer.