Passion behind the words

If you have ever read almost anything I write you will most certainly notice that I make mistakes. Grammar mistakes. Spelling mistakes. Missing words. Added words. Pretty much if you name it, I most likely have committed it. I try to do my best to make sure that my grammar is correct, and the same with spelling, but things still fall through the cracks. You may be thinking, 'Maybe you should try harder,' or 'What's your excuse for that?' You are probably right, I could try harder. My excuse? If I was homeless, had the worst appearance on the planet earth, or was so amped up on energy drinks that I couldn't sit still, my excuse would be simple. I'd tell you, 'I'm a writer. That's why.' However, as a writer, I should have correct grammar and such, so I can't really use being a writer as an excuse. Or can I?

Show of hands: How many of you have seen the movie Finding Forrester? That's odd, I don't see a single hand raised. That's beside the point. Back to my point. For those of you who haven't seen it, it came out in 2000 and stars Sean Connery as a famous recluse writer named William Forrester, and Rob Brown who plays a young basketball player/writer named Jamal Wallace that stumbles into Forrester's life. I won't get into more details of the plot, if you are really interested in it, you can just watch it. The reason I am bring up this movie, is that somewhere in this great film Sean Connery delivers a line that I have come to live by. Forrester is teaching Wallace about writing and he says to him, 'No thinking - that comes later. You must write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is... to write, not to think!' I absolutely love that line. Thinking gets in the way too much. Sometimes, as different or difficult it may be, we must not think, instead just write. Let the words flow with the passion of the heart. I've found that the heart has so much more to say than the brain anyway. In fact, I believe that it's the key to writing a good book. A person doesn't have to be a magnificent writer in a way that they have great grammar skills, or are a literary genius. If they did just that they may write something dull. There needs to be passion behind the words.

So the next time I am imperfect and have errors in my writing, and someone asks what is my excuse. I'll be sure to tell them this: 'I'm a writer. I write, I don't think.' Saying it kind of sounds funny, but in reality it is true. Mistakes will be made, and to make it bearable for the reader, corrections should be made, but let they come later. After you are done writing. Rewriting may be something that I should work on, but until then, I will continue to write from the heart, and leave writing from the head until later. I hope my readers will learn to do the same.

-zjh