Creation Or Discovery? - An Unusual Tool For Writers

I want you to make up a sentence in your head. Any sentence at all. Even something that's true, an event from your own life for example. It could even be something nonsense like, "The alligator wears running shoes when eating ice cream."

Got it?

Ok good. Now, do you feel confident that you've created this sentence and that it most likely didn't exist before you thought it? Recently I've stumbled across a site that challenges that assertion. It's called The Library of Babel.

The Library of Babel is a virtual library inspired by a short story of the same name by Jorge Luis Borges. In Borges' story, there exists an incredibly vast library that contains every possible book that has been or ever could be written. Faithful to the story, the virtual library also contains every thought that has been, or ever could be, expressed through writing including this post you are reading right now.

Now, there's nothing mystical going on here. A computer program arranges the 26 lowercase letters of the alphabet, along with spaces, periods and commas, in all of their possible combinations. In this way, it eventually configures the words into anything that can be written. This means that it has created every story, even true stories. The library contains the true story of your birth, life, and death. Somewhere among the incomprehensible number of pages is the entire past and future of our universe.

The problem is, you would never find those pages by browsing through the books. In fact, you won't find anything besides random, nonsensical letters. The only way to find anything worth reading is by using the search function. And the way that works is to write the stories that you are looking for. For example, take the sentence that you just made up. The only way to find its location in the library is by typing it into the search tool and hitting enter.

But this is where I like to think of the library as an unusual tool for writing. It's a tool in the sense that it has changed the way I view the act of writing. In my mind's eye, I see a seemingly infinite amount of books. I see a library more vast than the observable universe. Every book ever created now and forever are there to check out with a library card. We were all born with that card. It's our imagination. With it, we can discover anything and everything. Try if for yourself. You'll be surprised at what you find.

Discussion:

What do you think about the library? Had you heard of it before this post? What do you think it means for creative works? Do we truly create or do we make discoveries? Leave a comment with your thoughts. 

Finding Time To Write

Ok so this post doesn't break any new ground but I wanted to address a very common problem for writers, including myself, and that is finding time to write.

My dream would be to have all day, every day to just write. Maybe go for a walk after lunch to get some inspiration for more writing. But the reality doesn't match the fantasy. In the real world we have day jobs and/or many other responsibilities and commitments. And for some of us, like me, when you add kids to the mix you're available time for writing dwindles so much it's almost non-existent. But we tend to make time for the things that are important to us. And as a writer, writing is very important.

So how do we make the time? The best way I’ve found is to make a scheduled time to write and stick to it as much as possible. If you have a very full calendar everyday, look for ways to win back time by reducing or eliminating non-essential tasks. There may be some things that are wants and not necessarily needs. For example, if you have a habit of watching T.V. at night or going out with friends, then trading those activities for writing time at least a couple of nights each week would be a great way to gain more time to write.

But if you don't have anything on your to-do list that can be eliminated, another trick you can use is writing in short bursts. Ideally we all want to have a few hours each day of uninterrupted writing time but when this isn't an option even writing a sentence here or there can help to get some words on paper. I keep a pen and a notebook handy for those times when I have even just 5 or ten minutes to get some words out. This way I don't lose time getting my laptop out and waiting for it to boot up.

So our takeaway is that finding time to write is seldom easy but if we are vigilant we can find holes in our schedule that we can fill with writing. Remember that getting some words out is better than none at all. Writing is a journey and we should all enjoy it. Take care!