LEARNING TO TURN BLOOD INTO BREATH

/ February 11, 2016

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I am not a writer.

I am very adamant on this point.  I write but that doesn’t make me a writer.  A writer spends many hours learning the art of writing.  They learn the rules and understand its etiquette.  I know some amazing writers and to call myself a writer would seem disrespectful.

BUT you don’t have to be a writer to write.  I am an emotional person who feels deeply and I yearn for connection. I string words together well enough, I suppose, to accomplish this goal. But that doesn’t make me a writer.  I do bleed onto the paper.  I do write free.

But a writer…

A writer doesn’t just bleed onto the paper, a writer mixes breath into that blood and creates life. A writer grabs other people and yanks them into their world and the people reading their words have no desire to be released from that world.  Writers take writing free… to the next level.  They don’t just paint a picture with their words they spend the extra effort and time to turn it into a masterpiece.

I am a bleeder standing in a crowd of breathers.

As a bleeder, I am inspired and built up by the talent that surrounds me.  I am better because them.  I learn how to write better just by knowing and reading them.

But sometimes, the demons in my head laugh at me and tell me I am a fraud.  That I shouldn’t even try to write if I can’t master the art of writing. Why should I try?

What is the point of breathing when I am so good at bleeding?

Maybe because…

People are connecting to my words.  People find some sort of value in what I type here.  More importantly it helps me.  I find people like me struggling through the same things I am.  You don’t need a degree in writing, or even be good at writing, to reach out and look for connection.

And maybe over time…

I will learn to breathe instead of just bleed.

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18 thoughts on “LEARNING TO TURN BLOOD INTO BREATH”

  2. Oh, nice job, Hasty! I feel the exact same way about myself. I can string some words together well enough, but wouldn’t go so far as to call myself a writer, and I’m okay with that. You keep doing what you’re doing though, girl, because it’s amazing and makes the world a better place.

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  3. I really am perplexed as to why you don’t consider yourself a writer.

    This post alone – so beautifully executed, with this gorgeous analogy to blood and breath – is evidence of the very thing you would have its contents deny.
    AND – you are The Poetess of WordPress, and you always will be. xoxoxoxoxoox

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  6. Bleed, breathe, its all good.
    I saw some some good quotes about this subject today from Coppola and Gaiman, both feeling they are impostors, that someone might ruin everything by telling them they were fraudsters, that their work meant nothing.
    Creative endeavours seem to bring that to the surface. Maybe its theisolation of creativity?

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  8. “A writer grabs other people and yanks them into their world and the people reading their words have no desire to be released from that world.” Dear, beautiful writer . . . this is what you do. Every time you share your soul with the page, with us, with me, this is what you do.

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  13. We invented language to point at things. Then we found out things move, but we were too proud to see they move all the time. So we hacked past and future tense and commas into language so we can take snapshots of things in motion. What makes it hard to breathe is that language does not capture motion. What makes it easy to bleed is the satisfaction we get from validating our pointers. Have to write novels just to pinch out moment we can point to later. Breathing is necessary to represent reality and bleeding can make it harder to just say something simply. But that is because of snobs who designed language.

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