Let It Flow Like The Milk And Honey Of The Promised Land

By pekepate

It is either your thoughts are as grand and as many as the hoarded rice of affluent people and your paper as small as a ‘post-it’ OR your thoughts as less and as bad (I thought of using ‘stupid’ but I didn’t want to make it redundant) as the brain cells left in Erap’s head and your canvass as large as the tarpaulins of Bayani Fernando.

In both situations, one thing is apparent, and I hope that it came across to you just as it came across to me, that writing, in general, is not as easy and as appealing as “one, two and three”.

This article is about the difficulty tagging along the process of writing. And believe it or not, thinking about the preceding sentence took 30 minutes of my life. I won’t focus on the technicalities involved in the process, not because it will take weeks of my life, but because, I don’t know much about them.

I asked several people for their thoughts on what makes writing difficult and “unappealing”. And I thought of discussing their answers here. The thoughts which I was able to gather are the following:

1. “Mahal kasi ang bolpen/lapis ngayon eh, rice shortage kasi.” – Of course, this answer is stupid and wrong! Well, the one who gave this answer was actually trying crack a joke. So, why did I still include this? You see, stupid thoughts are still thoughts, and more often than not, from these thoughts we come up with works which are brilliant and correct.

2. Time Constraint – Almost everyone who writes is subject to this, unless you are Brian Gorrell and you have all the time in the world except money and a boyfriend. Most of the time, if not, deadlines are given. And this does not only add-up to the difficulty of writing, but may even affect the output and thus make people not write at all. But still, there are times wherein creative juices are fast flowing during this constraint. Perhaps, it is just a matter of treating it as a challenge and of properly handling pressures.

3. Fear Of Being Criticized – Who likes them? Sometimes, even the constructive ones are hard to swallow. But everyone knows that they actually help. Written accounts (i.e. articles) which are of public consumption won’t escape the critical eyes of the reading world. Actually, fear of criticisms brings about another good thing. It will make you conscious the whole time you are writing (oh ‘di ba, less mistakes!). Besides, there is always a chance for one to redeem yourself or moreover to get even to that someone who’ll lambaste your work! Haha!

4. Bad Topics – Syempre naman! Like the topic of this article. Well, it is not that bad. But who will actually write about how hard it is to write? Well, this is where the purpose comes in. When you have a good purpose, like this one, you’ll make good out of the bad.

5. Lack Of Inspiration – Well, personally and for a lot, it is something I need but it may not be the case for everyone. But for sure, it is something helpful. Nonetheless, it is always fine to look for an inspiration when you feel like writing. It doesn’t necessarily mean that that inspiration should be a ‘someone’ and can always be a ‘something’. And then you’ll notice that all the thoughts and creativity hibernating inside your mind will flow like the milk and honey of the promise land.

I believe that the aforementioned are the most common problems why writing has become a stranger to many. In fact, every now and then, it seems that I don’t know ‘writing’ as much as I think I know it. If ever you noticed, the five thoughts mentioned are actually not problems at all. In fact, some, if not all, actually present solutions.

Now the real purpose of this article is not just to present the abovementioned but to encourage everyone to give writing a shot. And who knows, you might love it. Besides, writing has also some benefits which you might want to discover yourself!

Come on! We want to know just how creative you are!