Writing 001

People always, always, ask me why I write. And then even more of them say " I (they) can't write". And then they proceed to say "How do I (referring to both me and themselves) write?".

Honestly, the best advice I've ever gotten from anything or anyone is from NIKE : Just Do It.

If you have a thought, let it out. Don't bother with worries about how it'll turn out. Just write it. Who knows if it'll turn out good or not until the pen starts to bleed ink onto paper and draws your thought out in the color of words.

But if you really want direction, or a sense of standard to your work, one latin phrase that I like to always, always remember is:

Dolce et Utile

Which in plainspeak is literally translated as "sweetness and usefulness". But going beyond literal echo, it basically stands for "Entertainment and Function". Your work must be catchy, pleasing and entertaining so that readers will want to read, and yet it must also serve a purpose. For example, this blog entry serves to inform those who want to write about "Why and how they should write".

Without one, the writer's work remains but a paraplegic block of words, going nowhere. I may not be a multi-awarded writer or Palanca poet or Pulitzer Pen Man, but then again, these aren't my own words. I am just echoing a bunch of words I heard and learned from a long time ago. I forgot which teacher taught them to me, but that goes beyond the point. It is the lesson that builds the writer and not the teacher. It is what he/she has learned from the teacher that defines the work and not the person that taught them. Of course, the teachers' efforts do not go uncredited, but the fact that they have taught you well is more than enough credit. The fact that you apply what you learned from them should be credit enough, and you remembering their names and faces come just as a bonus.

So, write not because your teacher said so. Write because there is a thought, an idea, an emotion in your soul that you just cannot fathom, and only the pen can concretize its existence. Write because each drop of ink or each graintrack of lead is a footstep towards building the monument to the teacher with no name.