Writing requires Words

When I was a clueless freshman in college, I wrote an essay for my English class about my life, about my journey to my place in the chair I was sitting in at big table in a college classroom.

I wrote about my time at my grandmother’s house because so many of my memories seemed to congregate there. 

I wish I had that essay, but I was eighteen and folders of classwork went into the trash bin at the end of the semester.

The reason I would like to have it is because that essay was the first time that I got encouragement as a writer. In particular, it was a description of an old well out in the pasture near the barn. I described a broken handle that lay beside the well.

The part about the handle was fabricated. The handle I described only existed in my imagination, although there actually was an old well out there beside the barn.

My professor underlined the descriptors and praised the arrangement of my sentences regarding that well. He spoke to me openly before the class and praised my writing, even telling me that I should pursue developing it.

I did feel some pride for being called out that day, but I didn’t take him seriously.

Or did I? Why do I remember a conversation that lasted less then five minutes?

The reason I ask these questions is that I remember that interaction twenty-seven years later.

Two years ago, I started pursuing writing with intention for the first time. I have made some progress but not without struggle getting to the page.

Today, I write “Day 4” of thirty-one days of writing, most of them will go unpublished which is my intention so that most of what I write can be done without restraint in an effort to get my authentic voice to the page.

Writing doesn’t always require readers. It only requires words. 

Linking today with Lisa-Jo Baker at Five Minute Fridays on the writing prompt: Write.