The Life of a Writer – Part 1

This is the first of a series of posts about what inspires people like me to write the nonsense you see here…

When people find out I’m a writer, I often get lots of questions. Sometimes people ask me how they can get into blogging. Sometimes I get questions about how someone can become a better writer. Most of the time, the biggest question I get is, “Why do you write what you write?”

More specifically, especially from friends who know me well, a question I frequently get about the posts on my page is, “Why do you write so much stupid stuff?”

Well…

First of all, “stupid” is a relative term. We’ll come back to that though. This blog is just a piece of my writing portfolio. I do write serious articles, just not here usually.

Writing has always been a fun hobby for me, but it is something I take very serious. Most people don’t realize I’m more than just a blogger. I’ve been a staff writer for multiple newspapers over the years. I’ve been a content contributor for magazines and various websites, and I’m also a published author, having written multiple books (with more on the way). In these situations, most of what I write is content specific and has a clear purpose. In my real world job, I find myself writing extensively every day, but it is very technical, and detail oriented.

These things bring me to why I write “stupid” posts…

This blog is a fun way for me to write whatever I want to write. It allows me to empty the random thoughts and experiences that run rampant through my mind with no restrictions. What you might consider “stupid” is outlet for me. Clearing our heads of the craziness we endure each day is an essential part of life.

When I first started this blog many years ago, I was rebounding from a very rough time in my life. Having an outlet for my thoughts was something that was very much needed. My life has been filled with more trauma than any one person should ever have to endure, so I spent many hours in front of the computer screen emptying my brain. It was very therapeutic for me, but looking back, it was probably a bit depressing for anyone reading it (I’ve since taken down the majority of my early posts because they were too depressing).

While the writing did make me feel better, the truth of the matter is, no one was reading it. I shouldn’t say no one, but it was very few. At the time, I think I had less than 15 followers, with probably half that many views for each post. Of those, the readers were primarily friends and family. I had hopes that my page would grow, and maybe, just maybe, I could help someone who was experiencing some of what I had went through. I hoped to develop a following of people who would read my writing and know they were not alone. I wanted to make a difference.

That didn’t happen…

Perhaps I didn’t give it long enough, or perhaps I didn’t write enough articles, or maybe I didn’t write the “right” articles. Regardless, with hardly anyone reading my twisted thoughts I asked myself, why should I write it? Please don’t get me wrong – As a writer, you should always write for yourself. This is critical to the process, but for me, I am an entertainer at heart. I like being the center of attention. I needed more of that in my life because it is something that was missing for a while. I felt I could better serve the world with humor than trying to get the world to feel sorry for me. I transitioned my blog writing from morbidly depressing posts to fun, pointless, totally random material because I wanted to make people laugh and smile. It was a part of me that had been long put aside and forgotten, but desperately needed to come back.

Once I made the transition to random babble and observational humor, my readership numbers suddenly began increasing. I was on to something! For whatever reason, people were actually reading what I wrote. Is is pointless? Absolutely, but it gives you something you might not have had when you started reading it. What exactly that something is, I don’t know, but if it made you reflect on a similar situation you’ve had, giggle a little, or at least crack a smile, it makes me feel pretty good knowing I made a difference in your day. It took me a while, but I realized I was developing a following of readers who need an escape as much as I do because sometimes we need to not think and just look at things for what they are – random and pointless.

To summarize my point, you need your outlet for whatever it may be that you wish to write about. Just don’t worry about what that is. Write because you want to write. As for thinking something someone wrote is stupid, nothing is stupid. Writing is art. You may not understand it and you may not appreciate it, but someone does. That someone, if no one else, is the person who made it.

I’ve been told I’m a “good” writer and that I should write “serious” articles. I absolutely will, but you won’t probably see them here (except for stuff like this). When you see something I write here that makes makes you ask, “What is the point of this?”, dig deep into your creative writing brain and write a stupid story or two of your own. Perhaps you’ll find out firsthand why I do what do.

Do what makes you happy, but try to make others happy in the process. If you succeed, everyone is better off.

~ Marty ~

Look for more “Life of a Writer” posts coming soon.

Be sure to follow me for more random written shenanigans.