Never Stop Writing

Bring a notebook wherever you go

Take it with you when you visit your local Ziggi’s coffee shop multiple times a week

Never stop writing

Write about how that familiar feeling of the scorching hot coffee touching your tongue gives you

an odd sense of comfort

Write a little message on the bill when you leave your tip for the waiter

Use the biggest, most important-sounding words you know

Watch her smile as you get back into your car

Are you satisfied?

Never stop writing

Take your notebook with you when you go to work

Spend your break jotting down your surroundings

Keep yourself present, or you could lose sight of reality.

Write an overly-descriptive poem about a window. You are a writer after all; I’m sure you can

find some way to connect to it.

Take note of the world outside of that window. Describe the way the sky is like some magical

painting, a description that has likely been heard millions of times.

You can be more creative than that, right?

Never stop writing

Take your notebook with you when you visit grandma’s house

Notice as she watches your constant scribbling of words. Do any of them even have meaning

anymore?

“Kid,” she tells you, “you treat that notebook like it’s your phone. Take a break, will you?”

But you can’t. You must not stop writing or you’ll forget how.

Keep writing, even if there’s nothing to write about.

Write about how empty your head is.

Self depravate as often as possible.

My writing is garbage because I never practice, right?

“Why do you spend so much time writing anyway?” Your grandmother asks.

And the answer to that is complicated. Why do I?

I guess I aspire to write my way through life like a shadow, unseen and unheard, yet leaving an

unmistakable impression.

I want my writing to mean something. I want to hear those faint hums of approval from my

audience when I read my work aloud.

But I don’t hear that. At least, not often. Or maybe I’m just too caught up in the fact that my

writing could be better that I don’t see that it’s at least good.

But I don’t want my writing to be just good. I want it to be...

But the words don’t come to mind. The correct descriptors are right on the tip of my tongue, but

they won’t come out. Is it that I’m incapable of writing well, or am I just not writing enough?

So I never stop writing.

I never stop writing.