Writing

A writer gathers with six senses. He must listen and watch and smell and taste and touch, of course, but he must also be alert to inflections and furtive glances and goosebumps and twitches and hesitations and the many other tells people give involuntarily.

Some say writing is a solitary pursuit, but first a writer must be a hunter and a gatherer. Only then is he able to draw believable characters and scenes and events.

Mature people sometimes suggest they might be too old to write. I argue that only in maturity do they possess the life experiences to write effectively. It's the mountains and the valleys of life that season a person or a writer. My heroes in life are those who have birthed and buried, who have known triumphs and defeats. To me, Rudyard Kipling in "If" defined the requirements for becoming a good writer.