Life’s Better With the Right Words

Have I ever told you I love to write?

I mean I really, really LOVE it.

Then why don’t you marry it?

Well, I sort of did.

Over the last year, I’ve written more than a million words. As soon as the paid work is sent off, my muse gets quite a bit of my fawning attention. Fortunately, Cindy’s okay with me falling in love over and over, so long as it’s never with the siren song of another woman.

Though I’ve spent hours (and hours) of every day curving my thought into copy, it is not a daily alchemy I ever expected to have in my life. Were I to travel back a few years and speak with a Sean who was not yet wearing the few sudden strands of silver which have sprouted here and there throughout my otherwise dark thatch of chestnut hair, and tell him that he would one day start writing and never stop, he’d probably look me in the eye, laugh his smug little snigger, and maybe say something like, “Sure thing Pinocchio. I’ll write a book right after I finish my next triathlon.”

It’s true. I never saw it coming. Now that it’s here I wonder how I ever lived without it.

There is something wonderfully self-indulgent about writing. People willingly part with hundreds of dollars per hour for the chance to lie on a couch and unleash their demons. Yet the honest writer has the fortune to see their reflection staring back from every ink filled page.

“Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn’t wait to get to work in the morning:  I wanted to know what I was going to say.”  That quote, by Sharon O’Brien says it perfectly. Whether I’m writing fiction with my partner, copy for my clients, or stories for my children, paying attention to what I’m saying and how I’m saying it, allows me to know a little more about myself each day.

In the last year I have realized that the more I know about myself as a writer, the more I know about myself as a person.

The more I know about myself as a person, the better husband, father and friend I can be.

Life’s Better With the Right Words…

I’m only here a short while. No matter how hard I might claw at the inevitable, one day I will be gone. POOF, just like that. It could be a slow and lingering departure, or as sudden as a changing wind. Either way, as sure as water’s wet, I’ll be gone. Who I am affects how much I can do in the time that I am here. Clarity of voice will lead to clarity of purpose, sharpening the tools I need to be a better man and raise better children, who will then be more equipped to be the best citizens of the world that they can possibly be.

The tagline chosen for Writer Dad over a year ago was decided without much thought. It was simply my favorite from the three I thought up one Sunday afternoon. It is wonderfully fitting, though. And a year later, I find it beautifully true.

The words we use are important, essential to who we are and how we assemble our thoughts. As I’ve been digging deep into the language of my own life – the language that has led me toward this particular today and impending tomorrow, I’ve stumbled across many stories that I would love to share. These are the stories that helped to make me who I am. They are, I am sure, similar in many ways to stories you have yourself. My tales have different settings and a different cast, but like yours, they are the aggregate of what made me who I am today, and eventually, what turned me into a writer.

Life is better with the right words. I appreciate you letting me share mine with you.

Live better. Sign up for free updates to Writer Dad by RSS or Email!

Related posts:

1. A Good Life Requires an Endless Edit “Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states...
2. Behind the Bars of 500 Words “A habit is something you can do without thinking –...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.