Engaging Your Mind and Heart! The Joy of Expressing What You Want to Say in Your Own Words

Continuing from last time, I would like to write on the theme of
"Why I Write."

I want to think about various reasons for writing, but the reason
"because writing organizes my thoughts"
is one I think is indispensable.

You have probably heard the phrase "output is important" until you are sick of it.

There is a world of difference between "finishing a book" and "being able to convey the contents of a book."

When someone says, "I finished that book!" and I ask, "I haven't read that one yet. What was it about?"

I sometimes get the reply, "Hmm... what was it about again?"

I am not very good at reading books myself, and honestly, I am the type of person who remembers absolutely nothing if I just "read from start to finish."

If I read normally, I am the type who "finishes the book but remembers nothing of the content."

That is why I try not to say, "I finished this book!" (´▽｀；)ゞ

I only say "I finished this book" when I feel I have properly understood its content.

So, when can you say you have "understood" something?

It is when you have created a piece of writing that makes you think,
"If I explain it this way, it will surely be easy to understand."

I thought maybe I didn't need to write it down, but when I try to talk to people about things I have only thought about in my head without writing them down, I unexpectedly find things I have overlooked.

The reason why that happens is because there is not enough
"back-and-forth of thought."

It's not just about thinking in your head; when you write, you can ask yourself,
"Wait, will people really understand this?"
as you write, which allows you to:

add analogies,
change expressions,
reorder the flow of the story,
or delve deeper into the topic,

and so on.

Sometimes you might think, "I thought this analogy would be easy to understand, but when I put it into writing, it's not good at all," or

"I thought I could build a theory like this, but when I put it into writing, it's full of holes and
doesn't hold up as a theory."

Things like that happen too.

That's why, for me,
"writing" is also
"a time to fully engage my mind and heart."It really is.

And in my case,
I can't write properly
unless it's "writing aimed at someone."

Because it's "writing aimed at someone,"
I want to fully engage my mind and heart
to write something decent,

but when it comes to "writing for myself,"
my mind suddenly stops working.

That's why I can't write properly.

The reason I can write if it's "writing aimed at someone" is because
I can imagine various reactions, like
"They'll surely have this question," or
"If I write it this way, they might think that."

Conversely, with writing aimed at myself,
I don't really know
what I should write.

Therefore, I
only write "writing aimed at someone."

Or rather, I can't write otherwise.

If I were to write for myself, it would probably just be
listing facts like a diary.

I've digressed a bit, but
the reason I write (for someone else) is

to "fully engage my mind and heart to deepen my understanding."

That is what I would say.

And, precisely because I cannot write for myself,

it is also "so that someone else can read that writing."

That is also part of it.

Also, as a side note,
when I write just as I please
without creating a structure for the text,

I sometimes experience surprises or discoveries,
like "Oh, so that's what I was thinking" or
"I had this kind of idea."

I have also written about that
in the article below.

Today, while I was on a call, I happened to be told
"I don't enjoy writing."

The reason for that is
because they have to write
"the kind of text requested by the client."

When you have to write what a client requests, you have to set a rigid structure and write in a detached manner, so there is no room to insert your own feelings.

Also,
when you write with the focus on "how to get it across to the reader,"
you get criticized, so
the writing ends up being more client-oriented than reader-oriented.

Even if you think, "This is how I want to convey it!"
if you can't write it in the way you want to convey it,
I think it's understandable
to feel that "writing is not fun."

I often say,
"I really love writing, you know," but
when I'm told "write this kind of text,"
I immediately lose the desire to write.

In other words,
I love "writing that I can write as I please,"
and I hate writing "text that I am forced to write."

In the first place, for me, writing is about
writing because I have something I want to convey, and
writing when I don't even have anything to convey
just doesn't feel right.

If I were in a situation where I had to write that kind of text,
I would just think, "Then I'd rather not write at all."

Thinking about it that way,
it's not that I "like writing," but rather
I like writing text that allows me to convey things the way I want to convey them
.

Some people might think, "No, you should write what the reader wants to read, not what you want to convey."

"Writing what the reader wants to read"

This is an incredibly important thing, isn't it?

However, for me,
I have no intention of meeting the reader's needs
at the expense of what I truly want to convey.

If it's not something I want to convey,
my writing won't have any energy,
and that style of writing
isn't much different from "client-focused" writing.

"Conveying what you want to convey"

Writing that kind of text is also a process of facing yourself
and digging deep into your own thoughts and emotions.

That is precisely why
I believe there is meaning in speaking in your own words.

Of course, this doesn't mean you should just ramble on about what you want to say
without thinking about the reader.

However, I believe the real thrill of writing
is thinking about how to take what you want to convey as your core,
and making it easy for the reader to understand
and interesting for them to read.

And,
if my intention is actually conveyed to the reader,
I am extremely happy.

Writing is, while in the process,
communication with oneself and
communication with an imagined reader,

and the finished piece of writing is,
communication between the text I wrote and the actual reader
, isn't it?

Because it is communication, I believe it is important to express "what you want to convey" in "your own words."

After all, people who communicate without using their own words feel unnatural to talk to.

To avoid that, I personally want to write "text that I can express in my own words."

Well, that was just me rambling on with excuses about not wanting to write "forced text."

To summarize "why I write" this time:

"To fully engage my mind and heart, deepen my understanding, and gain new ideas,"

and

"To convey what I want to say in a way that is easy to understand and interesting,"

and

"To have that text read by 'someone',"

I think it could be said that these are the reasons.

It is precisely because of these things that

"writing is fun"

is something I am able to feel.

That is what I thought while writing this time.

When I write pieces like this,
I feel like I've encountered a new side of myself,
and it becomes so much fun! ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و”

However,
a piece of writing that only benefits the author is, after all, a flawed product.

Ultimately, it is about having the reader
feel some kind of value,
and having them think, 'I gained something from this.'

That is the kind of writing I want to finish with.

Well then, thank you very much
for reading until the end!

I am participating in Hana Fujiwara's contest, and
since pasting the article will send a notification over there,
I feel bad about sending notifications multiple times...

So, this time I will not paste the link,
and will just leave the hashtag.

#WhyIWrite