#d.l.

It’s easy to lose the words when you pull three all-nighters trying to reach your 50,000 word goal. Trust me, I’ve been there. In the early hours of the morning, trying to claw the words out of your head and piece together semi-coherent sentences. The hundreds of thousands of words are condensed to three and that one word that’s on the tip of your tongue… What was it again?

Writing becomes a chore. Often times it’s painful to push on, and the stories collect dust on the top shelf in your closet.

But when you can find the words, you remember why you write. Watching the seeds of the story grow and blossom out of the paper, ink bleeding into reality. Creations created in silence explode with an intensity you couldn’t have imagined. The waves pounding in your skull finally burst free, and your story is carried atop the crests. 

“The words are yours. You have the power that they bring. I guess the real question is, what are you going to do with it?”

Unfortunately, those moments are rare. Especially when you’re forcing yourself to sit down and write for a month on end. Personally, I live for those moments. The hours of head-slamming and squinting at the wall are worth the fifteen seconds of the puzzle pieces sliding into place, that satisfaction of writing something that you’re proud of.

So, at three in the morning, staying awake on an ungodly concoction of coffee and energy drinks, remember that you’re putting yourself through this for a reason. You aren’t just writing words, you’re writing your story. Your story. You created this world, these characters. You hold the strings to an intricate puppet show, and you can carry them anywhere you can imagine. The words are yours. You have the power that they bring. I guess the real question is, what are you going to do with it?

D.L. is amateur writer working on several different stories. They like Dungeons and Dragons, anime, and a large array of strange music. When they aren’t writing, they can be found at the ice rink, trying and failing to practice jumps. Podcasts and dreams are constant sources of inspiration.