Be A Girl Who Writes

Be a girl who writes. A girl who writes knows her love for words is deep and true. Be a girl who finds joy in the printed word. A girl who prefers the tactile turn of a page to a swipe on a Kindle knows the undying love she feels for the tangible. Be a girl who walks around correcting her friends' grammar, not because she is putting them down, but because she honestly can't help it. Be a girl who apologizes once she has realized that she has interrupted them due to her correcting their grammar. Be a girl who spends hours brooding over poetry in free-verse, wondering if she'll ever be able to understand free-verse's sentence construction. The girl who puts herself down because she thinks her poetry is mundane is always looking for inspiration within a gerund. Be a girl who carries a notepad on her at all times. You never know when something will move you. Look for experiences that move you.

Be a girl who writes aimlessly. Not every story needs a beginning, and not every beginning needs an end. Look for other girls who think like you. Feed off each other, but never, ever compete. Competition for the girl who writes is akin to a reader being asked to analyze and rip her favorite character to shreds. It will hurt your writing spirit in the long run, don't do it. Be a girl who writes, and re-writes the most simple of things. Even an e-mail holds character. Know that everything has character. Be a girl who writes for herself. Writing for approval shouldn't be your aim. Aim for contentment when you know you can't be happy. Embrace the fact that happiness could be at the end of an ellipsis, and a full stop. Alternate endings are always possible in the writing girl's mind. Never stop writing. Let your writer's block pass, your muse has just stepped out for some fresh air. Wait for her to come back. Trust me, the wait will be worth it.

Be a girl who finds people interesting. Every life is interesting, even that which on the surface level may appear mundane. Be a girl who is open to challenges. After all, a girl who writes knows just how challenging it is to come up with that perfect opening line. Be a girl who can multitask. Let your grey cells wander. Tolkien knew what he was talking about when he said "Not all those who wander are lost". Find yourself getting lost in the stories inside your head. Write them down as they form in your mind. Your stories need not be complete, sometimes letting your mind run around in circles is good for the pure exercise of the act. Find things that exercise your imagination. Imagination is the key to all works of art. Take pride in your art and cherish every word, punctuation mark, space and even every typo. Sometimes even errors can be inspirational.

Be a girl who rewrites her old stories. Never give up on the ones you think are unworthy. Perseverance and patience are virtues that a girl who writes comes to be grateful for once the effects of the caffeine ebb and the numbness of nicotine wane. Find beauty in the grotesque. Find the grotesque in beauty. Challenge preconceived notions of what is good and what is bad. While your words are printed in black and white, know that from a distance, the page looks grey. Find joy in the greys of life. There are infinite tones for you to choose from. Experiment with your greys. Revel in them. Not everyone is perfect. A girl who writes knows perfection in her characters will make them dull and drab.

Be a girl who finds it criminal to edit her words. But also be a girl who strives to evoke in her readers the exact emotion that she feels by making her work hit the right spot. Be a girl who postpones a deadline that you simply must meet, because you can't seem to end it just the way you want to. But ensure that the wait is worth it. Be a girl who understands where your next meal comes from. Cherish the fact that your job lets you spend time on your writing. Find time to write. A girl who writes needs to vent, lord knows. Be a girl who writes and reads. Even bad literature can inspire you to do better. Read everything. While fiction may make your creativity soar, non-fiction will keep you grounded. Read poetry, both in rhyme scheme and free-verse. Re-read your childhood classics. Go out and finally get yourself that copy of The Iliad and Odyssey. Or closer home, get yourself a copy of The Mahabharata and Ramayana. Relish every character's entrance and exit. Ponder over how you will make your characters enter and exit just as brilliantly. Spend time weaving the tapestry of your plot(s). Time is never wasted when you ponder and mull over your stories and essays.

Be a girl who writes for the joy of it. Let that joy spread.