My intention is cathartic. Write a long essay or blog post centered on what I’ve learned about writing and my relationship with it and relay the path forward I chose based on those lessons. It’s to review my thinking and process it one last time for this site. And given the impending doom (he says sarcastically) of the New Year, it seems a proper time to do so.
As stated in the title, I have been writing for over 30 years, since I was in my early teens. It became a path I wished to take a few years after I started but one I seemed unable to follow religiously. Talk and intention followed, with sporadic periods of output. About the only thing that can be said of the experience is I never gave up. Nor am I about to.
Writing is art. It is an art form. When one thinks of art, they might think of the fine arts of drawing, painting, sculpting, and such, but they are but a small piece. Art is effectively metaphorical creation. It is an interpretation of life. There are many many forms and writing is one of them.
Art is a funny thing. On one hand, it is driven by this nebulous idea of the Muse. In the times of ancient gods, the Muses were spirits who helped to guide artists. I believe those muses are real and still operate.
On the other hand, whether or not the Muses exist, one must still sit their ass down and do the work. In other words: art is driven by effort.
I cannot say whether I am like the many or the few here, only that I am what I am. I am lazy and I procrastinate — particularly when I am uncertain or something is difficult. Often, writing is very difficult. Sometimes I can break through the laziness and procrastinating to sit my ass down to do the work; other times I am not so lucky.
What is “the work” anyway? Is it just the act of writing itself? Not quite. That is part of it, albeit a large part. And if all a writer cared about was the behavior of forming a series of words in a way to bring forward a message (coherent or otherwise), then it would be exactly that: “the work”. However, being a writer in many ways means telling a story… for others to read. It is persuasive. It is emotional. It is informative. It is also a business.
The business part of it can strike some as an odd thing. Besides people wanting to sell their art, where does the business part of it enter? I think the business aspect is two-fold. One, to make money from the artistic effort. Two, to protect the creation from others who wish to make money from your art. If one’s art interacts with the public sphere, then part of it is business.
We think too much that business is simply making money. There’s more to it, although one can argue business is all making money in the American sphere at this time. Still, in this case — in my case — the business end mostly is about making money. If I wish to have a career as a writer, then making money is kind of a critical component.
Back to the part of writing that is work. I proved to myself several times over that I can do the writing part of it — the putting words together in a sequence. I am capable of the discipline of writing a minimum of 1,000 words each day. The problem comes when that’s all I focus on. If word count is all I track, all I concentrate on, then ultimately it is all I do. No editing. No sales. No outlining or planning. On and on and on. To be a professional writer, there can’t be only writing. The other things need space, too. Giving that space is a continued struggle.
To be honest, I gave little time or effort to figure out what I need to do in the writing world beyond the writing itself. Further still, I convinced myself that all I need to do was the writing. Then if I assembled the book and pushed the publish button, things would happen. How wrong I was (and am).
Now I talked (or wrote) a lot of the need to shift, but beyond typing out blog posts to talk about it, nothing ever materialized. That brings me to another lesson, I gave out my energy too readily.
I am a bit woo-woo, religious, and all. Psychology and religion are some of my interests and I’ve studied a little of the Eastern religions like Taoism and Hinduism as examples. In those religions (as well as others if you really look), energy is spoken a lot about. The energy we take in and the energy we put out. Whether one believes it, one can easily understand the difference between a positive person and a negative one. We can sense it. So whether we truly believe in auras or energies or any of those things that sound almost cultish new age woo-woo, we can tell there is something there.
In humans, thinking is akin to action. Writing is akin to thinking. Thus, writing is also akin to action. Where I am going with these few axioms is by writing about doing something, my mind will make the connection that I did the action. Consciously I am aware the action remains unfinished, yet effectively the energy was released. Complications do exist there, such as when I journal or when I blog. Yet, even still the act of writing — of thinking — on a topic with intention (and there is a specific piece), I am releasing the energy for the action. In other words, if I write about writing, it steals away the energy for… writing.
Strange, yes. This is part of that woo-woo thing. It starts to enter auras and cosmic energy, all of which I say is as real as one puts stock into it. Given experiments I take on myself and my habits in writing, I would say that at least in my case, some of it works on me. The more I write on the plans and actions to take, the less I do them in real life; the more I keep it close to myself, the more I am able to actually do. The more I spend my creative energy on talking or writing about writing, the less energy I have for writing. Simple enough, right?
It took over 30 years to learn this.
Change is required. In this case, unlike as described in earlier posts and updates, this isn’t a change in activity, or release schedules, or required word counts. No, this is to talk about the need to shift my energies from how I spent them in the past to how I must tend them going forward. Folded within it does mean there will be habits changed and all the subsequent things that follow along. Still, those details… they should remain offline — something personal. It’s all to avoid the trap of the psychological trap of talking about doing something enough to where my mind feels like it did so. In other words, it’s to hold tight to the energy so I can actually spend it properly.
This is but a piece, but if you think about it, we spend time and energy so recklessly. Were we to investigate where we spend it and then begin to tend to it like a devoted gardener to its crops, imagine what can be done. Then when the garden is well tended, what fruits might be produced?
As far as this site, my social media, my writing — it all will be going through a transition period for some time. I know some of what I am going to do and paths I plan to try, but there is also a lot left to be explored. What that is will remain void from here. Going forward, I might talk abstractly on habits and writing, or I might write a treatise on a writing topic, otherwise, the site will be barren of my issues, problems, struggles, plans, etc. (Granted, I will continue to post updates like book/story releases and all — when they are ready and a firm date is set.)
I am a writer. I am a poet. I am an artist (and yes, I draw, too, albeit far less often). I like taking (weird) pictures. I enjoy a lot of creative endeavors and in many ways, I spent the last 30+ years burning out the energy for it all in so many ways that didn’t serve me. So that part is to be changed going forward. Starting now.
Like I stated above, this isn’t an instant solution. This is a piece. But it is one lesson in 30+ plus years I should listen to.
Copyright © 2023 by Jeremy C Kester – all rights reserved
Do not copy or reproduce without written permission – photographs and images included unless noted otherwise.
If you enjoy the content from me and this site, please consider purchasing one of my books, or if you prefer another way to help support my work, consider donating by clicking: PayPal.Me/jeremykwrites
Jeremy C Kester 
Leave a comment