Ryan's Writes #1: Start Bleeding

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit at a typewriter and bleed" - Ernest Hemingway

This is day one. I just have to write. That is all. Every night before I sleep. Or maybe every morning when I wake. Walking on my phone to class, absentmindedly tapping the screen until something makes sense.

A published author said that he would dress up as if going to work, and hit the space bar hundreds of times before he was hit with the motivation to write.

Stephen King holed himself up in a corner of the room to write. "Life isn't a support-system for art. It's the other way around." I haven't finished the book yet, but I intend to before it's due...36 hours from now. Maybe then, I'll get what that means.

I am addicted to laziness. I'll admit that. Writing is hard because it requires mental strength and stamina. I lack severely in the physical department of strength and stamina, sure. But mentally, damn am I out of it. I have trouble focusing on any one thing for any period of time. Damn buzzfeed and all those FB clickholes. Lists for everything, no longer than a paragraph. Short status updates. Short sentences. Damn.

I go to my school of observation twice a week, and more often then not, I hear the same thing from my mentor teacher. "These kids don't have the stamina required to read, much less study." They don't, and I sympathize with them. I know that it is difficult to do something you don't want to do. Hell, I've been putting off graduation for many years now. But....it has to be done, and the only way that you can really do it, really achieve, is if you push yourself to do it. Look, kids, in order for you to be better readers, you have to read. Just like if I want to be a better writer, I better damn write.

I've heard the same lesson over and over again, and it's about time that I just do it. I've told myself this over and over again, but I just need to do it. I've started this writing project over and over again, so I just need to do it until it is done.

This is day one. I am bleeding. It is raining in my desert tonight, but after the rain is gone, my blood will wet the sand for forty days. This is my challenge.