Just Keep Writing · 5 August 2017
There are times when a writer just needs to write. Not that it will be some outstanding piece of prose or fiction. Nor that it will ever see the light of day. But I just need to keep writing.
We watched Finding Dory the other night. It was not the greatest show ever. (How many sequels or prequels or at-the-same-time-quels, which by the way are called paraquels, or circumquels or interquels ever are?) But it was enjoyable. And if you know anything about Dory in either Finding Nemo or Finding Dory, one of the most profound things she says is, “Just keep swimming.”
I know. Somebody is perturbed or baffled or indignant that anybody could or would say, “Just keep swimming,” is profound. But it is. Think about it. When all else fails, you just keep swimming. When you do not know what to do, you just keep swimming. When there are sharks all around you, you just keep swimming. What else can you do? You just gotta keep on keepin’ on.
Think about it, “just keep swimming” works on so many different levels. Sure. The “swimming” in could be lots of different things. Walking, riding, eating, talking (okay, maybe not eating or talking), going, working, or maybe even writing. That is why it is so profound.
For me, I just need to keep writing. Whether I have a story to tell or not, I just keep writing. Whether I am full of words that need to come out or not, I just keep writing. Whether I am just babbling or I have a perfect piece of prose, I just keep writing.
I just keep writing. No matter what.
I may never win an award for my writing. (Most likely.) I may not ever sell any more books. (Sold a couple, so who knows?) I may never get any more fans to read my drivel. (I probably should stop calling it drivel.) But it does not matter. I just keep writing. And writing. And writing. Who know? Something might stick sometime. Even a thousand chimpanzees typing away on a thousand computers for a thousand years might come up with something comprehensible. After all, I do it, why is it so hard to think that they never could?
Ah well. I have come to this conclusion to just keep writing, not so much because Dory said I should, but because I have nothing else to write. I have completed a bunch of stories, and there is not much else to write about right now, still I must continue my rite of writing. (How many homophones are there for write anyway?)
So I have written. I have taken a day when I have little to write about and written. Not that I am so much a task-check-er-off-er, but I am a creature of habit. And like Dory, I have a small brain. So like her, I need to just keep swimming. Oops, writing. Just keep writing.
© 2017 Michael T. Miyoshi
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