Posts Tagged: writers

“Traveler in the Dark”

On July 17, 2018 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

The following is from Wordsmith.org.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

“Writing is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as the headlights, but you make the whole trip that way.” -Cory Doctorow, author and journalist (b. 17 Jul 1971).

“Too often, I just want to sit in the car, and pretend I’m going somewhere.  You don’t even have to turn on the headlights or start the engine, if you do that!” (DTEB)

I think that what Doctorow’s vivid comment means is that writers don’t see very far ahead.  They travel in the dark, the length of their headlights, until they reach their destination.

This is one of my problems as a writer.  I want to know how the story ends before I begin.  And when I don’t know, I just sit in the car, and make engine noises.

It is not just in writing that I do this.  I have a tendency to do it in every area of my life.  I nearly let my sweetheart get away without marrying her.  Why?  I didn’t know how the story would end.  (After nearly forty-five years, it hasn’t ended, but I like the way the story is unfolding a lot!)  It may be safer to sit in the car and pretend to be going somewhere, but it is lonely.  Ultimately, it isn’t much fun, either.

I nearly stayed in a horrible, debilitating addiction.  Why?  I didn’t know how the story would end.  I was afraid to divulge all my secrets, afraid that exposure of these secrets really would be the end of my story.  It turned out to be the beginning of a whole new story, which I like so much better than the old one.

I nearly failed to get my Ph.D.  Why?  I didn’t know how the story would end.  I preferred just sitting in the car, pretending that I could have gotten my Ph.D.  What a frustratingly wonderful trip I would have missed if I had not decided to turn on the engine and lights, and put the car in gear!

On and on it goes.

We are not all of us writers, but we all are writing our life stories.  We do it with our thoughts, our attitudes, our words.  Above all, we do with our actions.

We were not made to sit in the car, and say, “Varummm!   Varummm!”  The darkness is real, and the road is difficult.  But we do have headlights.

And, as Dan Fogelberg said in his song “Nexus,”

“Blessed the traveler
Who journeys the length of the light.”

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