Writing for the Sake of Writing

I remember one occasion where younger me, bored in class while the teacher read from some novel that should have instead been a play, opened my notes and scribbled down an incredibly original origin story for a super-hero called Lotus, which innovatively involved explosions & laboratories. My teacher, having noticed my head in my notebook, approached me, took my notes and read it before briefly commenting “glad you enjoy writing, but do it some other time”.

There is no real significance to this story. Matter-of-fact I had completely forgotten about it, until I had started drafting this post. Yet, it encapsulate what my attitude towards writing, fiction or non, had become. The idea, that there is always something more important, more meaningful and more productive to do (god forbid you are not productive for a breath or two) than sitting down and simply writing.

Writing is fun. Yet, somewhere I have forgotten that fact. That simple enjoyment that 6th grade me, despite my hatred for English class, knew and indulged in. When writing that laboratory explosion scene, the thought of writing comics for living never even came up, instead I was fully, and totally absorbed with the genuine act of writing for the sake of writing.

Now that I have graduated and gotten a full-time job, with it crept a sneaky existential crisis concerning what I do with my free time. “I play video games. What? What do you mean I need a new hobby?” is what the voice in my head responds to the thought of doing anything else. Playing games has been, for the majority of my life, what I do with my free time. But gaming, just like reading, is a form of consumption, albeit really good ones (read: addictive).

What I need, I have realized, is an outlet. A place to have a dialogue with my thoughts, think them through, and put them down on paper (or keyboard). And a place to look stupid.

Thanks for reading my first entry in Anecdotal Thoughts.