Writers are often frustrated because they are usually stuck in a corner of their own making. They ask questions like why can’t I write like Edgar Allan Poe or why doesn’t the Stephen King method of writing (1500 words a day) work for me? You can’t write like Poe because he is a product of a highly unique set of external experiences. Just like you. And King’s writing method is not a secret formula to success. A writer’s approach to writing is highly personalized and ritualized based on their unique personalities and quirks.

The writing experience is an ever-changing process moving as life moves you to different social and technological circumstances. I started out with a small electric typewriter I bought in a garage sale. Later I used the IBM Selectric I found in the library, school and US Air Force office to type out my “master” copy I would later Xerox to send to publications. I did this for five years until I bought a floppy disk computer and learned out to use Word Perfect. I did this for five years until I switched to Word and cartridge disks that held more memory. I have been using Word for twenty-six years as my preferred document format.

Technology and social habits also change the methods you construct to eventually compose works worthy of submission. I smoked for over half my writing career and found the inhaling and nicotine and utter romance of a burning cigarette next my notepad and computer to be enthralling. When I quit thirteen years ago, I had to find new things to do with my hands and was frustrated on how much I relied on a stick of cancer to give me a boost. But I made little notes on stick-it pads and pasted blobs of writing in a sketch pad that allowed me to doodle to the point that I got sick of this new ritual and was over cigarettes mentally as well as physically.

These days I write almost exclusively on my smart phone which allows me to do things on the go while working and raising two young boys. The years of switching, twitching and bewitching various methods, moon howls, mind games and menthol have provided me a deeper introspection of the importance of self in the architecture of composition. It might be a cruel irony that in the day of social media where everyone wants to connect to something or someone you are called to set yourself apart and discover your deepest essence before directing others about theirs. It’s not the dilemma of practicing what you preach. It’s the fuel you require daily to put forth your strongest creations. True inspiration comes from within; not outside yourself. You may admire Michelangelo, but you cannot be inspired by him on any innovative level until you learn what makes you different in the world. Until you have that answer Art is something Da Vinci paints, Rodin sculpts, Shakespeare writes, and you merely watch.