I Want To Change The World

One thing all great writers have in common is the ability to evoke emotion in the reader. This means that all great writers find a way to communicate that emotion through the words that they put down. Which leads me to believe that all great writers have to be deeply in touch with their emotions. Now, correct that train of thought if it's wrong but it has lead me to a conclusion that is worrisome: I want to be a great writer but I'm not very in touch with my emotions. In fact going back and looking at what I write, it's all mostly intellectual exercises and amateur ones at that. I tend to wrestle more with principles, philosophies and thought processes than I do with emotion.

This bothers me. The emotions I feel most readily are happiness and anger. Not that this comes as a surprise to many people, my most emotive blog posts are about what angers me or what makes me incredibly happy.

I don't do sad very well and don't know how to communicate the deep sense of belonging, love, joy, disappointment, commitment, or frustration that I regularly feel. I really want to though. I want my writing to clearly communicate my emotions. I want to make a connection with other people through my writing. I want them to feel what I'm feeling, otherwise what am I doing besides getting on a soapbox and yelling about my personal opinions?

We've got enough of those people. We need more art, we need more people willing to bare their souls in order to connect with people, in order to change the world.

I WANT this. I want to learn how to get better at this. I want to be a great writer because I want to change the world. I don't write because I like to see my words in print or because I want my blog traffic to increase. I want to change the world and I want to do it through writing.

There is something sacred about writing that I feel. It's a chance for me to confess, to say what I don't know how to articulate any other way. It's an opportunity to connect with people across religious, socio-economic and ethnical lines. It's a way to bring those people together for the greater good, to accomplish something we couldn't accomplish any other way.

This is why I write. It's what I aspire to and it's what I'm aiming towards. I'll get their someday but until then it's an everyday battle to get better, to feel my emotions more deeply, and to learn how to communicate them excellently.