Read, Talk, Then... Write

I’ve been writing for approximately 5 years now. I write not as frequently as a blogger or a typical writer does but I write articles for my work as a mechanical engineer in an engineering design firm as required. What can you expect but mostly technical engineering topics and subjects addressed to specific engineering professional. Most of it is already published and circulated in magazines online. After all those articles, I never asked myself “Can I really write?” despite the fact that my works are already published.

I even tried to put up a personal blog which covers everything I have in mind relating to work, life, faith, food, hobbies, travels and others. I did write a significant amount of words for my blogs though not all that I mentioned is not yet blogged about. As I leave my house today to drop my wife to work, I asked her from out of the blue, “Dear, what do you think of my writing? Can I really write?”

I’ve been wanting to read books since I was a kid and found that it relaxes me. As my wife and I moved from Dubai to Canada for good, I stumbled upon a ton of books available in bookstores at cheap prices both new and used. So much variety that whenever I think it fascinates me, I will buy it without hesitancy, even without a clue If I have a shelf at home to put it.

I am excited to have so many books since I felt like I deprived myself of such “reading leisure” during our Dubai tenure that I focused so much on my 6-day 9-hour job. I totally forgot how to disconnect from that work realm to read a book. We immediately bought an inexpensive, do-it-yourself, easily assembled shelf for these books. And oh boy! The shelf was quickly filled in 3 months. We also bought a work desk with a desk lamp where we can work at home and of course where I can read.

I mark each book I finished reading so I can track my progress in finishing all of the books I bought. One bookworm blogger mentioned that, you don’t buy a book then read and finish it from cover to cover before buying a new book. No, it should be whenever you saw a book that interest you, just buy it instantly then just find time to read it in the future. Don’t worry if it piles up, you worry if that book will get phased out until it becomes a collector item with a hefty price. That thought was stuck in my head, it prompted me to buy extra shelf in case that happens (Yes, I got slightly paranoid with the possible book phase out and price increase and yes to that I already have an extra shelf in the storage).

Reading a book relaxes me. It brings my blood pressure down. It slows down my palpitation. It pulls me to a different world may it be fiction or non-fiction, history or just a story, life strategies and lessons, it calms me. This is critical for a pressured job I’m handling in the engineering world. Reading keeps me sane. This gives me and my wife something to talk about during our sit in the park, stroll in the mall, dine in restaurants. We talk about our opinions on topics covered by the book, thoughts on quotes mentioned by the author and those responses we have for situations laid out on each book chapter. All of that I think is already enough until I bought and read the book,

If You Can Talk, You Can Write by Joel Saltzman.

My immediate reaction upon reading the book title as it rests on other books on the bookstore shelf, “REALLY?”

It fascinated me so much that I’ve gone through the book in just 7 hours (first time in my reading duration history to be that quick). I never thought that it would persuade me to still read but this time, to write and write more than what I’ve already written before. The author made it convincing when he presented great authors and storytellers quoting from their own words how true the title of the book is or how they relatively relate their work based on this same concept.

What is more beneficial for me as I compare and experienced is that this gives more relaxation to the writer that writes than to the reader that reads. This gives relief to all the thoughts you have in mind. You can express and share these to others. From my case, I share it with my wife but can now also be shared to a bigger probable readership who will take a glance at my blog posts. How to do this concept was detailed in the book on a situation basis. All doubts on freewriting and organizing it are responded by the author convincingly in a procedural way. Now I just realized why we bought the shelf and the work desk at the same time. By the way, I am not paid to review his book nor to endorse it but since it helped me to look on the brighter side of writing in addition to my newly acquired addiction on reading books, I thought of sharing it on this way.

If you’re reading this, I presume that you’re a reader and you have the tendency to share this write-up to a friend or family member by talking to them in addition to other subjects that is a typical content of your conversation with others. If you do, then why not be like us and the rest of the bloggers and writers (as I humbly consider myself as one) out there that pulls and shares their imagination and creativity from reading to writing.

A proven relaxation, reading then writing is a good combination to acquire knowledge and express it in a creative way.

As a reader, I can definitely read but can I really write? My answer, likely YES and it will be a continuous work-in-progress.