Have you ever wondered why writers seem to be so brilliant?
The reason behind this is that writing actually influences and nurtures the human personality. When one tries to write, that person undergoes certain procedures that transform him/her, resulting in a more polished individual. Take note of the following ways on how writing affects one’s personality.
1. Writing helps you to be more decisive. Like any other form of art, writing involves decision-making. These decisions range from whether you are going to write or not, what you are going to write about, how are you going to explore your chosen topic, what techniques you are going to employ, and a lot more. All these decisions are necessary so as to avoid half-baked works which usually arise from hesitations and confusions. Given these, we can then say that writing helps you to be more certain with things or at least, get accustomed to making decisions.
2. It teaches you know when things are already too much. Paulo Coelho writes in one of his novels entitled The Zahir: “We humans have two great problems: the first is knowing when to begin, the second is knowing when to stop.” It is true, isn’t it? When it comes to writing, you are pressured to know your limits and know which things are still worth sharing and which ones have to be thrown out of the window because your readers do not even care about them.
3. Writing gives you the courage to confront even some things that are difficult. Joan Didion, in her book A year of Magical Thinking, describes how writing helped her cope with the situation when her husband died and her daughter got sick almost at the same time. She also explains how through writing, she was able to process grief and lighten it up because writing requires meditation to fit certain forms and generate beauty. In this manner, we can say that when you try to write about something emotional or painful for instance, you are forced to recollect the memories and relive the feelings you might have been trying to forget just because you are afraid. As a result, you stand face to face with these fears and get used to them until you develop a certain kind of immunity.
4. You feel the urge to know more whenever you write. You share information or impart insights when you write. When you write about something, it is a prerequisite that you know a lot about it or it will eventually manifest in your writing. This is why when one decides to write, that person recognizes the need to know more either through second-hand encounters such as reading and watching or by actually experiencing it such as in immersions. Writing intensifies along with a person’s thirst for knowledge and experience. In the same way, it pushes him to aim for the attainment of credibility to become believable when he writes.
5. Writing is opening yourself to the world. Write to express and not to impress as people would say. As you try to express, you expose a side of yourself to the world. You give them access to your thoughts, feelings, and desires. You let them know about your hopes and aspirations. You share yourself until you are not just yours. When you are theirs as well, they become entitled to have a say on you: what they think of you, how they find your thoughts, how they perceive and process the things you give them. They criticize you and to help know how you can make yourself even better. Consequently, you get acquainted with criticisms and you take them as opportunities for you to learn new things.
Take a look at this article written by Tad Ermitaño, “On misspelled words, writing in Tagalog, and Dinuguan. It tells a story of a former Filipino-American cartoonist who wrote about her life while growing up in a Filipino community. Whatever initial thoughts you may have, save it until you read through the article.
Writing polishes people. It is apparent that the writers or those who write are being looked up to. They are profound, they take pleasure in knowing a lot, and above all, they find joy dealing with other people and learning things from them. We should keep in mind that they are also humans but unlike the usual humans, they are the ones who have chosen to master their crafts. Writing has continuously honed and nurtured their personalities and transformed them into brilliant individuals capable of making lives out of words.
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