LIVE FIRST, WRITE SECOND

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic, political activist and Nobel laureate. 

At various points in his life, Russell considered himself a liberal, a socialist and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had "never been any of these things, in any profound sense".

I found the following statement by Mr. Russell very profound and is the subject of today's post. 


 

“To all the talented young men, (I substitute people), who wander about feeling that there is nothing in the world for them to do, I should say: 'Give up trying to write, and, instead, try not to write.

Go out into the world; become a pirate, a king in Borneo, a laborer in Soviet Russia; give yourself an existence in which the satisfaction of elementary physical needs will occupy almost all your energies.'

I do not recommend this course of action to everyone, but only to those who suffer from the disease which Mr Krutch diagnoses.

I believe that, after some years of such an existence, the ex-intellectual will find that in spite of his or her efforts they can no longer refrain from writing, and when this time comes their writing will not seem to them futile.”
 ​

As one's life marches forward in time, it fills up with a library full of experiences. Some good and some not, however, each one is a story. What better research than to write about something experienced firsthand.

It could be something as simple as a family outing buying their first dog or a day at the beach. It could also be an experience of hiking and becoming lost in the wilderness, shipwrecked, breakups, first dates, love, hate, disappointment, training for a marathon, or war, dealing with illness, college life, corporate life, afterlife, panning for gold, risking it all on one roll of the dice.

The list is endless. Even when you think have nothing to write about how many people have you met in your life? Ask questions, listen to their stories.

I once talked to a Homicide Detective, and it was fascinating. I listened to a man who has been in the United States for less than ten years, emigrating from the Middle East. His first job was five miles from his where he lived and because he needed money to take care of his family, to save, he walked to and from work six day's week, every week for one year. Most of the time during the night to get to work at 6 AM. I knew a woman once who was a successful stage entertainer and now works in an office as a bookkeeper.   

Everyone that you meet has memories, both sweet and bitter. As a writer it is your job to tell those stories, whether fiction or non-fiction. 

Of course the longer you're walking around the more you experience. When you sit in front of your computer and think you have nothing to write, read stories on the Internet.

Filter through the "fake news" or not, but never think you have nothing to write about. 
 
                              THE ONLY REAL WAY TO BECOME A WRITER IS TO WRITE


#Bertrand Russell,#imagination,#writer's block,#live life,#life's stories,#short stories,#dream,#Possibilities