A Passion for writing ...

“I can never get people to understand that poetry is the expression of excited passion, and that there is no such thing as a life of passion any more than a continuous earthquake, or eternal fever..."  Letters and Journals of Lord Byron 

Passion instills creative self-energy of unique qualities. To be passionate about what one does, be it writing, painting, cooking, accounting, engineering, or whatever the task, one has to be one with the doing part of being. It is not simply enough to be the writer but one has to ‘do’ writing, and do it in a passionate way.

Writing comes from deep within, some would argue that it might even come from with-out, a beyond, from some energetic interruption from the universe gifted on to the page merely passing through the writer. However one discovers their words, the lack of desire in doing so makes the job of writing just that, a job. Any professional who is passionate about what they do will relay the same message, the lesson of being in the moment and being alive in what one sets out to accomplish on a daily basis. Drone is a negative low energy term that can be the calm opposite of passion if one allows a routine process to overtake the energy flow. Wandering one’s way through a job, meandering and biding time, is not invoking nor engaging your mind with your spirit. Your mind is a powerful tool, arguably your best tool regardless of your profession. For a writer it is everything. Our minds become our go-to-place on a moment by moment, word by word basis to get the writing job done.

The energy that comes from creating one’s work from inside your own head is indescribable to a non-writer and shadows a mystery and romance around the world of a writing lifestyle. That energy when coupled with passion creates a powerful obsessive-like process and when the two are in sync writing becomes a very crazed way to make a living.

It is not always simple but all writing be it journalism, research, technical, non-fiction, poetry, novel, script and many many kinds, all come back to one thing – that of the words that must come together on the paper. Those words must filter through the mind of the writer, process themselves onto the page and then carry a reader’s attention. The most banal newspaper article to the most complex big-screen script must all go through the same process. Without a passion the writer does not only the reader a disservice, but also one to themselves. Without the intensity of passion, the homework and research, the writing process and the final outcome are lack luster and one might as well trade in your pencils and stand behind a counter asking ‘do you want fries with that?”

Why write if you don’t bring a fire to the page? Always pack along your passion when you gather up your tools to write. Carry that ardent passion through the entire experience of creating and it will magically find its way onto the page every single time.

Write always (with passion),

Michelle