On Writing ~ Eduardo De Len

May 2014
1 of 3
rite your story. Write because you have no choice: there is
something spewing forth and it has no other way to go but
out. Write because you have to. Really: write because it is
your livelihood, material or otherwise. Write because you have an
assignment. Write because there is no alternative.

Write because you have a purpose. Whether that purpose is to write,
to write something specific, or to achieve some other purpose that can
be achieved by writing.

Write because you have a deadline. Write because time is pushing
you, because you are out of time, because you have all the time in the
world.

Write because you have a memory; because you want to remember.
Write to photograph a moment, to add color to a picture, to effect a
feeling.

Write because you have an agenda. Write because you have facts,
because you need facts, because you want to misinform. Write
propaganda.

Write your name. Write your rsum. Write your history. Write your
future.

Write words; write sentences, poems, signs, directions, lists,
signatures, plays, speeches, essays, prcis; novels, treatises,
encyclopedias, screenplays, dictionaries, commercials. Write blog
posts, graffiti, fiction, informed and insightful comments, and trolls.

Write because you cant sing. Write because you cant act. Write
because you want to become a writer. Write because you are a writer.
Write because you want to become a film director, critic, an editor,
screenwriter, speechwriter, professor, researcher, an historian.

Write because no one else can do what you can. Write because
everyone else is doing it. Write because one day you will die and will
no longer be able to do it. Write because it is the only way people can
remember your way of thinking after you are dead and gone.

Write because you have a point to make, a target to reach or hit. Write
because you lack an aim, write to find an objective. Write your
journey, write to find your destination. Free-write, write stream of
consciousness, write beat, write neat. Write concisely, write profusely;
write few words, write many words. Write it all.

W
On Writing ~ Eduardo De Len
May 2014
2 of 3
Write what you feel, what you see, what you hear, what you smell.
Write the mind of others, write your imagination, write worlds
unknown. Write to make what does not yet exist, write the
unutterable.

Write to discover yourself. Write to describe the journey. Write to
change, write to learn, write to measure the distance between youth
and wisdom. Write to discern.

Write to play. Write to entertain. Write to disgust, to discuss, to
disarray. Write order, and write orders. Write sequences. Write to
bring together. Write to build. Write instructions, and write
instruction.

Write a joke. Write to laugh. Write to contemplate, to visualize, to
illuminate. Write to relax. Write to amuse yourself; write to amaze
others. Write to embarrass other forms of communications.

Write to keep things alive; let language, ideas, verbs and nouns live for
one more writing. Write because you were here.

Write because you cant stop writing. Write because you are blocked.
Write because there is nothing but that stupid window through which
you can only see things to write about. Write because others will think
you are cool.

Write to get laid. Write because you have never heard of anyone
getting laid because they wrote. Write your phone number. Write a
note for a dalliance. Write for a moonlight tryst. Write about love.
Wrap a feeling in clothing made of words.

Write out of habit. Write out of bad form, out of virtue. Write a spoken
portrait. Write a new way of being. Write a philosophy of life.

Write the news, write the comics. Write what you know, and what you
dont know. Write what you want to know. Write your questions.
Write your wisdom, your divinity. Write your ignorance, your
disheveled dishonesty. Write your shame.

Write reality, the strangest fiction. Write all that is left unsaid. Write
what is left to say. Write what is needless to say. Write what is most
urgent to keep silent. Write a letter of recommendation, a review, a
criticism, an elegy, a hymn. Write the painful knots that become stuck
in the throat, write the nervous stomachs that find no relief. Write the
desolation that strips a heart, the loneliness in a crowd, the light from
a candle whose flame flutters in the changing wind and remains lit.
On Writing ~ Eduardo De Len
May 2014
3 of 3

Write because you do not understand, write in order that you may
understand. Write to come to an understanding. Write to take a stand.

Write the darkness, write the depths, the heights, the births, the
restless punishing road, the lightning, the waves, the beds, the roses,
the dirt, the silk, the thread, the needles, the sword. Write the plan, the
attack, the retreat, the defense, the strategy, the conquest and the
remains. Write the spoils and the spoiled. Write the languages foreign
and familiar to every tongue.

Write the story. Just write. Write just what needs be written. Write
what deserves to be read. Write for your contemporaries, write for
one hundred years; write for eternity. Write for yourself. Write for
your readers. Write forever. Write until your very fingers give out, the
mouth is dry, the spirit broken, the money spent, the whisky gone, the
room empty, the novel over and done with, and your lover out to get
cigarettes. Write until there is no more ammo, and no more
reinforcements. Write until there is no more fuel, no more down on
the pedal. Write until there is no more write.

Write the end. Write what is hard. Write death. Write life. Write long.
Write short.

Write.