Writing is a process

What do I mean by that?

It means it is sort of like driving in a car or watching a river go by. Like for example, you are never going to see the same river twice because that river is going to either empty into a lake or the ocean drop by drop and minute by minute.

You might think everything stays the same in life but it doesn't. Every thing is moving all the time the air blows through the sky every moment. The water goes down the river (every moment 24 hours a day) and we age 24 hours a day waking and sleeping.

So, whatever you write one day will be a different you than what you write today. I think as a writer if you want to be philosophical about all this it might help to see things this way.

For example, I can read things I wrote about Arcane in 1980 and go: "Wow! It's amazing to see what I wrote then because I'm so different now 45 years later!"

So, for me, writing is often where I am that moment only to be reread by me 40 years from now which is when I'm a somewhat different person.

In understanding this you begin to see how all these different people you become in the course of a lifetime can communicate in various ways with each other or maybe better said: "How all the people you were in your life speak to you here in whatever present you might be in days, weeks, years after you originally read what you wrote.

So, understanding this process you become a part of this writing process but it's more like you are the river and each time you stand on the bridge of life the river you once were has already gone to the sea more than once and then evaporated and come down on you as rain or snow many many times.

So, writing is sort of like a snapshot, a picture of the moment when you wrote this even though the water under the bridge might be coming down in snow or rain right now on your head or outside your window.

Will you recognize yourself when you read what you wrote many years ago. Sort of. But, mostly your reaction might be; "Oh. That's how I thought about all this then." And you might have completely different opinions now than you did then because of everything that happened between now and then.

So, in this way writing is a process of the moment which you can then read about years later whether it is one year or 400 years or even 1000 or 5000 years later.

Amazing!