"The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible." -Vladimir Nobokov

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Writing vs. Living

Teenagers are social creatures. Not that I profess to be overly social. In fact I'm rather introverted, and often prefer to be doing things alone, like reading and writing. Oops. I guess I just proved myself wrong. Well, count me as the exception to the rule.

Now. Most teenagers are social creatures. We like to hang out, talk on the phone, and go to crowded movie theaters on Friday night. So where does writing fit in? And what about the opposite end of the scale? What about the people who are so submerged in their craft that their family hardly ever sees them, let alone long standing or potential friends?

Here's an example: My best friend is an amazing artist. Like, amazing isn't even a strong enough adjective to describe how good she is. Because she's just that amazing! But I digress... Anyway, she goes to this school that specializes in the arts and she gets bucket loads of drawing assignments. It used to be that her parents wouldn't let her go places unless she had finished a certain number of sketchbook pieces. It seems to me that any artist, no matter how good, needs to have normal life experiences as well as practicing their art. And that really boils to what this post is all about.

I guess what made me think about this today was the time that I spent with my friends in the afternoon and then playing with my dog. I said in the my last post that summer is the only time that I can really write. Well, it's also the best time to really live.

1 comment:

  1. This is a very sweet blog and I am looking forward to seeing what comes next.
    Writing and life is a perfect match, like peas and carrots. Balanced, they help each other grow. Writing helps me see the world around me as I write about it and life gives me stuff to write about. However if they are unbalanced they can be harmful to one another. Life gets busy and you can't write or you get too obsessed with writing and ignore life. The results: you're unhappy because of your lack of writing progress or you’re chubby from sitting around all day :) Balance is key.

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