Writing: The Love Of My Life

By Saleem Rana

I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.

--James Michener

Whether you are interested in writing because you want to do creative writing or writing sales copy,  writing is one skill that will never become obsolete. 

Even with the emphasis on video and audio online to communicate, writing is still necessary, both as a script for the electronic media and to invite the viewer or listener to click on the appropriate button.

In the past, what held many people back from writing was the difficulty of publishing, but with online writing increasing in popularity, it's possible to get published instantly, either by self-publishing or going to a website that is interested in buying new articles and books.

While writing, of course, is a learned skill, I believe that the passion to learn how to write and the desire to be an avid reader are somewhat inborn.  Writing also involves editing, but you need not be an excellent editor to be a good writer.  In fact, many famous writers like Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway were helped in their careers by equally gifted editors.

In my case, for example, while most teenagers fall in love with a person during high school, I fell in love with writing.

Initially encouraged by my award winning class essays, after high school I  became a history major in college to hone my research skills and after graduation I worked as a journalist. 

My biggest thrill was traveling overseas on assignments. 

Unfortunately journalism does not pay very well.  Later on,  I went back to graduate school and got a degree in Psychology.  I had  read my father's  encyclopedias when I was about 14-years-old and the I thought the most fascinating portions were those that related to Freud, Jung,  Adler and all the other heroes of thought who created the fascinating discipline of Psychology.  Hence, it did not take me much thought to choose Psychology for graduate work.

Friedrich Nietzsche once said, "Count the day lost when you have not danced."  I'd rephrase that to "Count the day lost when you have not reflected on anything or written a word."

Now that I have an internet business, I write daily, creating articles for the public domain or e-books for my subscribers.

Writing has always been a highly pleasurable form of art for me. I find it surprising that many people view it as something to avoid as much as possible.  Some people even find journaling, or stream-of-consciousness writing, a strain.

Yet writing is a delicious experience.  It's marvelous to write.  And it's really easy. After all, it's talking and expressing your view of the world. These views may, in fact, be very important, and change the entire flow of a culture.  Sometimes your views, like that of Nelson Mandela’s, can even change the course of history.