Part of me feels like I have nothing to show for it, though. I'm 21, and I have no original works finished. Nothing has stuck. And over the years, part of me feels like I'm not the writer I used to be. I go back and read things I have written years past, and I wonder who she was, because sometimes she no longer feels like me. I have tried my hardest and done my best to find my path, and yet still I feel like I give up before it's done most days.
And I have no idea what to do about it, other than try harder to find that voice within me that I seem to have lost. That voice that could go on for 15 pages because it was a story I had in my head and I needed to get all of it out. I had ideas and thoughts that were not yet corrupted by the world and the doubts in my head of "is it good enough" or "will people like this" or "is this trendy enough or popular enough". I need to write because I want to get it out, need to get it out, and not because I feel like there's a quota I want to fill, an assignment that needs done. Because the moment you take all of the feeling out of writing and narrow it down to just the grammar and the critiques and all the soul-sucking parts about writing, you've lost the true meaning of writing. You write, I write, because there's something we want to say, a story we have to tell, and we have to get it out.
Writing used to make me feel satisfied. It still does, some days. Most days, however, I feel like I'm forcing myself.
BUT (ooo she said but), I'm not going to be one of those writers that goes on a hiatus to "find themselves". One, because I'm a perfectionist and can't leave things unfinished. Two, because I feel like that wouldn't do my any good. Three, I can't stop writing anyway, so I might as well share it here. Four, I'm slow as molasses anyway, it's not like anyone will be able to tell if I'm on hiatus or not. Five, literally no one cares.
But I care. And I had to get my thoughts out. I had a story to tell. It feels good.
lee xx