The Penless Writer

In the world of writing, to be penless is to be powerless.

There was a time when I wanted to write but I couldn't. A finished product was just as elusive as the holy grail. I knew it existed and that it was possible to achieve, but not by me.

Ideas for novels, short stories, poems, and children's books swam around in my mind like an endless currant, taking me no where. I desperately wanted to put those ideas to paper but always lacked the confidence.

One lonely winter day changed that.

I made a conscious decision that I would write for fine. I would write for me. I decided early on that if I didn't finish the project then it wouldn't matter. It was just for fun. This freeing project was my first children's book.

There was no planning. No Outline. No Plot or Character mapping. Just writing. I spent morning after morning sitting in the beautiful calm of my basement, sipping my coffee and typing the story of a little mouse family. I remember the feeling of my fingers gliding along those keys, as if they had been suffering for years of starvation. They desperately wanted to express.

The time had finally come.

This was the very first writing project that I ever finished (at least as an adult). A finished manuscript in my hand, I went from being a hapless malcontent penless writer, to a writer who has achieved something! An actual writer!

If you are a penless writer, I would encourage you to be brave enough to put your fingers to your keyboard and write as if no one will ever read your book. Write for yourself. Write for the satisfaction of writing. Once your body is used to the motion, it will tell itself it is a writer. And once your body believes it, you will too.