This Is The Best Time of My Life

[SusanJillParker]

I've been through some hard times in my life as portrayed in many of my stories but this, by far, is the best time of my life. Whether experiencing suffering sorrow, mental anguish, or physical pain, we all had to feel something and go through something to emerge through the other side as writers.

I'm lucky. Truly, having survived my childhood and continuing to survive my adulthood, I'm a survivor. Without a doubt, writing has saved my life. Now that I've lived through some things, I can write what I know while embellishing it. Creative autobiography has always been my cross to bear and my story to write. Writing is my therapy.

I may not have fame and I may not have fortune but I'm living my dream by writing my stories. I'm doing what I was meant to do. Writing is my passion. Whether you like me or not, whether you read and/or like my stories or not, you must respect the fact that we're all readers and/or writers. No matter our personalities and differences, we all share that common bond. We wouldn't be here otherwise. We'd be playing golf.

When not writing for a publisher, I have the freedom to write whatever I want and whenever I want to write it. I can't imagine being any happier than I am now when in my zone of creativity when writing my stories. Love me or hate me, I'm a writer who's true to the craft and to the lifelong apprenticeship of good writing. I'm living my dream and I lucky to live it.

If I had fame and fortune, all of that would get in the way of writing. If I had fame and fortune, none of that would matter in the way that writing a story does. Unfortunately, if I had fame and fortune getting in the way of writing, I'd lose what I have now. If I had fame and fortune, I wouldn't be as happy as I am now when writing my stories. I'd rather have my stories than fame and fortune. It would be nice to have both but at what cost? I can't imagine myself being that greedy to want fame, fortune, and the passion of writing.

Every night, I go to bed with a plot or a character in my head. Every morning, I can't wait to awaken to write.

Amazing, as if I'm drunk or high, with writing my drug of choice, it's truly amazing that I can be so happy while writing a story.

God bless Literotica, Laurel, and Manu for giving us a place to post what we write.

Thank you.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

I second that.

 

[TxRad]

God bless Literotica, Laurel, and Manu for giving us a place to post what we write.

Thank you.

Well put Freddie.

 

[DreamCloud]

Made my morning.

 

[49greg]

I second (or third or fourth?) the thanks to Laurel and Manu.

And thanks to you Susan Jill Parker for giving me a good smile this morning.

 

[Hypoxia]

We have many online options for placing stories (or whatever) we write.

However, with LIT we get a possible audience. What we post here actually gets READ by somebody other than the authors.

Freedom of expression is worthless without an audience. Thanks, LIT!

 

[SusanJillParker]

We have many online options for placing stories (or whatever) we write.

However, with LIT we get a possible audience. What we post here actually gets READ by somebody other than the authors.

Freedom of expression is worthless without an audience. Thanks, LIT!

I respectfully disagree.

A painter paints because he must paint even if he or she never sells a painting and/or never has a show. We write because we must write. Whether it's writing in a journal or writing a story that no one else reads, we write.

It's gratifying for me to know that every story I write is the best story that I can write at the time. It amazes me that every year my writing gets better.

Even if we didn't have an audience, just as a prisoner may write a written record of his or her incarceration, we write in the way that cavemen drew pictures on dark, stone walls.

 

[Hypoxia]

A painter paints because he must paint even if he or she never sells a painting and/or never has a show. We write because we must write. Whether it's writing in a journal or writing a story that no one else reads, we write.

Dr Johnson said, "None but a fool writes, if not for money," and thus we have many foolish writers in the world. But I'll posit a difference between public and private creation. It's a tree-falls-in-the-forest quandary: If nobody notices, did it happen? Or maybe it's a relativity thang. Any words-images-music-objects I create only for my private consumption are unnoticed by and thus irrelevant to the outside world. Isn't that mental masturbation?

Yes, many of us create stories, music, schemes, whatever, because we MUST. For some, it's a biological function, like excretion; Robert Frost ended interviews by saying, "Excuse me, I must *let* a poem," as if letting a fart. Yes, my fingers long for keyboards and fretboards and writing-drawing implements, etc. But unless I aim for an audience, it's masturbatory (another biological function) and not communicative. Communication requires sending AND receiving, a source AND an audience. What we create ONLY for ourselves never enters the memepool.

 

[Athalia]

I've been through some hard times in my life as portrayed in many of my stories but this, by far, is the best time of my life. Whether experiencing suffering sorrow, mental anguish, or physical pain, we all had to feel something and go through something to emerge through the other side as writers.

And so on.

This is very scary. I wrote something like that not long ago. If not word for word, it was certainly concept for concept. I, too, am a survivor. Writing helped me recover ... still helps me, for recovery is a journey, not a destination. I, too, write other things for money, but this stuff for fun. And now my thoughts come back to me cloaked in your words.

It is true that one can create for an audience of one ... the creator's own self. But art is also communication, a desire to make one's self known to others as well. John Hartford, the musician and music documentarian, wrote a short song called "I Reckon," about an artist's yearning to be commercially successful. But then he adds, "Had I not made this record, I still would have made these songs, and sung them to my family and my friends and, softly, to myself." It is the best expression I've heard about the artist's need to create art.