4 Ways Writing Reminds Us We’re Alive

It’s the Fourth of July this week, which is America’s version of a Summer Solstice extravaganza. We set off fireworks, eat too much barbeque, take a long weekend to look around at our loved ones, recognize their faces, and remember why we’re here.

So let’s talk about four ways writing—because we are all writers here—reminds us we’re alive:

  1. It grounds us in the experience of living

    Storytelling is just scenes—thrilling, fascinating, important scenes in concrete, realistic detail. Where do we get the detailed material for these scenes? From being alive.

    And every time we read or write such a scene, we get to live in multiple layers. Our lives are richer, more full of material. . .more vividly about living.

  2. It makes sense out of the life trajectory we’re traveling

    The meaning of stories is derived from the juxtaposition and order of the scenes. And that juxtaposition and order creates a trajectory—carrying the characters through their experiences toward their Climax, a trajectory that makes sense.

    Every time we read or write such a series of scenes we get to live through a meaningful trajectory. And meaning matters to us. We are creatures who long for it all to make sense.

  3. It keeps us awake to the relationships that give our lives meaning

    Of course, scenes have little to offer us without characters living them. And those characters have relationships: with each other, with their environments, with themselves. With us.

    Life alone in a single skull is lonely. We need each other to make the struggle of this mortal coil worthwhile. Even hermits need to know other people are out there. We read for the sake of the human connection between characters, between characters and themselves, between reader and characters, between reader and author.

    Particularly those of us who write.

  4. It transcends our familiar life through its sheer familiarity

    And that is the mystical in this earthly existence. Because when you take real detail, trajectory, and human connection and put them all together. . .you get epiphany.

    I mean, here we all are out here on this planet, doing what we have to do to survive—waking up every day, cooking, eating, working for shelter, working for protection from the elements, working to raise our families and care for our elderly and each other.

    At the same time, we’re searching for the clues in that existence that show us why it matters. What are we doing here? How did we get here? Why do we work so hard and suffer so much to stay here? (Years ago, I asked a friend this, and she answered without a second’s hesitation, “To rent videos.”)

    Storytellers give us that. Writers, especially, give us that. Because writing is an extremely detailed and complex and layered form of storytelling. And all those details and complexities and layers come. . .straight out of real life.

    Illuminating what life really is.

You are here as a writer to add, to life in general, your extremely specific experience of living.

So we can all live as fully as humanly possible.

12 thoughts on “4 Ways Writing Reminds Us We’re Alive

  1. Brian says:

    Wow. This is outstanding, Victoria. One of those pieces that expresses how I feel, but have never been able to articulate. Thank you, and have a great Independence Day!

  2. Jan says:

    Thanks Victoria – #4 really resonates with me – lovely list all together.

  3. Christine says:

    Thank you for this. It articulates what I feel about my……vocation? calling? passion? drive? Someone once asked me if it is hard to be a writer, whether it demands a lot of discipline etc. My response was instant and from the gut, “it would be much harder for me not to write. It is not a creative exercise, it is a drive.” Now I can explain, just a bit more clearly, why that is so for me.

  4. Melissa says:

    What an uplifting, affirming post–thank you!
    I just received your book in the mail yesterday…I’m looking forward to taking a look and seeing how it compares to the other writing how-to-ish books on writing that I already have. If I know nothing else, it’s that I still have plenty to learn about writing…

    1. Victoria says:

      Melissa, you’ll have to let me know what you think, okay?

      🙂

  5. Thank you for giving me permission to be grounded in the here and now 🙂 lovely blog entry! It was a fabulous breather and a relief.

    Hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend.

  6. tracy peterson says:

    Thank you. I have been trying to get myself back into writing.

  7. Victoria says:

    You’re welcome, you guys!

    I know, I crack the whip over you all the time. But once in awhile we just need to stand shoulder-to-shoulder and say, “This is why we do this.”

  8. It’s been a while since I’ve stopped by. Just have had a lot going on. As a consequence, some of my projects also got forgotten. This is a great post, and it reminds me why I get up every morning, and sit for hours on end, writing, blogging, and communicating with other writers.

    For me, though, it’s part escapism, and part wanting to share all the worlds that I get to experience in my head with others.

  9. Julia says:

    Great post; when something important happens in my life — one of my first thoughts is: how will I write about this. It really does help me process what has happened.

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