A.E. Albert: A Writer's Blog

Is Writing a Choice or a Calling?

Is Writing a

Choice or a Calling?

 by A.E. Albert

“If God gives you something you can do, why in God's name wouldn't you do it?” ― Stephen King

Of course, I was intimidated by the many facets of book writing. I was a writing novice, so self-doubt was my unwelcome companion.  

Quite frankly, it still is.  As all writers do, I simply ignored these bombarding thoughts and plowed on.

Writing dialogue was the first fear I had to overcome.  How can I possible do this? I asked myself.  I wasn't sure I had the ability to manifest another personality in my head.  

I was unsure if I could speak for them.  And forget about doing this with multiple characters at the same time.

As we all know, conquering a fear means facing it. In other words, just do it.  Beginning anything makes it real and makes us accountable to its completion.  

This is when I discovered something wonderful. It was in this moment of revelation that a knowledge was imparted to me.  Our stories are more than words, characters and ideas organizing themselves on a page.

Are we the painter or the brush?

I wonder if knowledge or innovation is imparted rather than created.  Isaac Newton wasn't the only one on the road to discovering calculus.  Actually, it was a race between him and Gottfried Leibniz. Newton won and was given credit for giving calculus to the world.   

Johannes Gutenberg and Dutch Laurens Janszoon Coster also raced to discover the printing

press. Frederick De Moleyns,  J. W. Starr and Joseph Swan were a few of the inventors on the brink of discovering the light bulb.  But then Thomas Edison succeeded where they failed.  

History remembers only the victor, but history isn't as cut and dry as that.  It's as though knowledge is is a gift and merely found by those looking for it.

Perhaps It's Destiny

The reason I bring this up is because I believe even in our small and seemingly insignificant way, perhaps this is how our stories enter the world. 

When I saw my characters in my minds eye they began to take on a life of their own, their actions and decisions separate from myself.  

It's as though they're their own entity and we're merely the instrument that gives them life.  My manifesting them on paper became almost effortless.

So what is my point in saying all this?  Perhaps we writers need to stop fearing things that may be beyond our control and realize that just maybe our stories are inevitable.  

We're looking for that story to tell, perhaps all we have to do choose to write it down.

What is writing for you, a choice or a calling?  Let me know.

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The Role the Indie Author Plays in the World of Publishing
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The Importance of Beta Readers
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About A.E. Albert