You have to live in order to write

I consider myself a writer. Yes, I prefer to jot random ideas down on a blog rather than start a novel, but writing is writing. I've suggested to many friends who always seem to be weighed down by their thoughts to start a blog. There is something extremely therapeutic about it: I have to channel and focus in on my thoughts to be able to make sense of them so others can understand them if/when they read my blogs. Anyways, I had a lazy night and turned on a random movie, which happened to be about a family of writers. In the movie, Stuck In Love, the father is a well-known author and his son and daughter are also aspiring writers. When the son gets flustered and jealous over his sister's book being published, his father sits down with him. He explains to his son that his sister is out living a life, finding adventure, putting her heart on the line and these experiences compelled and inspired her to write. The son, according to his dad, hasn't been living a life of love and excitement, which is why he's suffering writers block.

This scene struck me. Writers have to go out and live in order to have something to write about, motivation to write and an eagerness to put one's thoughts on paper. Normally, a blog post would just come to me. Something--be it a person or topic or situation--would happen and I would suddenly want and need to write to get the emotion off of my heart and organize my thoughts. It was powerful. It is powerful for me. Recently, however, I've suffered my own case of writers block. After I wrote my day-by-day account of my Italy trip and had that huge life experience, I feel as though nothing compares. I can't find the passion or desire to write.

I must have started five or six posts. Some don't have titles, some only have titles, but the desire to relinquish and open my thoughts hasn't been there. I don't have the interest, and that scares me. My blog and being about to express my thoughts has been a point of strength in my life. It has helped me sort though many confusing and emotional points in my life. As I prepare to move away from college and start my "grown-up" life, I should have enough emotions to fill post after post. That is why the line from Stuck In Love hit me like a brick. I haven't been exploring. I'm not talking about going to new restaurants and going to new places, I have been doing that. Rather, I'm talking about exploring me and who I am. I have to explore me before I will be able to go out a experience new things in life. One foot in front of the other, I'll figure "this" out.