An addict is an enthusiastic devotee of a specific activity.
It is a person who will feel distressed if he/she cannot indulge regularly in some kind of guilty pleasure.
My own pleasure is writing, putting on paper what is prancing in my mind. This affliction was dormant for many years, but it resurfaced recently with a vengeance. I now need my daily fix of creative adrenaline.
If I am prevented from writing, I can become anxious and irrational. Just like a chocoholic deprived of his daily morsel of chocolate.
Some addictions are hazardous, but some can also be therapeutic.
I find my own obsession stimulating.
It compels me to deal with a variety of subjects and articulate opinions that some can find uncomfortable and prefer to avoid.
Writing is a mental gymnastic similar to running imaginary laps.
It can be tiring, but just like any physical activity, it helps relieving stress and has been known to induce a mild euphoria.
I like to write in English but also in French, my mother tongue.
I have come to believe that my brain is divided in two distinct hemispheres: the French occupied zone and the American one.
They are often conflicted and separated by barbed wires. You can get from one zone to the other through checkpoint Charlie.
When you start writing about a particular subject, it is imperative to quickly corral as many galloping thoughts as possible. So I usually jot down everything that goes through my mind without any particular order. Later on, I will discard many of these ideas.
Sometimes I also wake up in the middle of the night and hurry to my computer to write down a sentence or an idea that popped up in my brain during my slumber.
The first draft of any piece is always disorganized and chaotic.
You need to read, re-read and modify many sentences before it feels right.
Writing is a little bit like kneading dough! It is sensual and tiring at the same time; the material at hand needs to be pummeled more than once for the right consistency.
After the first kneading it is best to go to sleep and give the dough a rest.
In the morning it will be massaged again for good measure.
After the final draft is completed, comes the polishing.
Like a goldsmith I go over every sentence a few more times to give it some extra shine.
And finally, to make my little piece more palatable I try to sprinkle it with a dash of humor.
For some, this might sound like a lot of work, but for the divinely obsessed, it is a pleasurable labor of love.
Try it sometimes, you will like it!
Alain
