You’re probably not going to believe this, but every one of you is a writer. You just might not have known it.
Even if you’re the type who has difficulty writing your own name, you’re still a writer. A songwriter. You see, your entire life is a song. Think about this for a minute.
A song can be happy. Or it can be sad. Or it can make people angry, or cause them to think, or allow them to escape the trappings of life for a while.
A huge majority of songs contain a chorus, which is the portion of the song repeated after one or more verses, and stays basically the same each time, although some subtle differences may occur. The chorus contains the “hook” of the song, which is almost always what people remember most. It’s a foundation from which the song is built. It’s the song’s heart.
So, let me ask you. What’s your chorus?
What hobby or job do you have that you keep returning to? What’s your center? What pulls you back during those times when the verses of life pull you in numerous directions? What do people think of when they hear your name?
Each chorus is unique, and there are as many of them as there are people in this world. Each person, simply by living their life, writes their own song.
Actual songwriters, those who compose the music we hear on the radio, almost always begin by developing the song’s chorus and then build the various verses around it. That is similar to how we write our own personal songs. We develop an aptitude for something we enjoy, and we return to it at various intervals during our lives.
I can’t speak about anyone else’s song, so I’ll use mine as an example.
I began reading, writing, and telling stories at an early age. While in school, I always excelled in the classes that required extensive writing. No matter what paths I took, I always returned to my writing. In college, I majored in physical education for several semesters because I had always been an athlete, but I eventually changed my major to journalism because I loved writing more than running wind sprints.
For the past 30-plus years, I’ve worked in the aerospace industry, making windows for aircraft, but on the side I continued to write short stories, novels, and songs. My day job became one big, long verse of my song, but my chorus, my bedrock, my heart, was writing.
So that’s my song. Writing is my chorus. I’ll never be able to get away from it, because it’s who I am. I started writing this song when I was young, and it’s still not finished. I still hope to add several more verses.
And after each one, I’ll sing my chorus. I urge you to sing yours.