By Jessica Lee
The phrase “read between the lines” takes a more literal meaning when it is interpreted how words, or “lines” are more than just marks on paper. To me, writing is a way to express my deepest, darkest thoughts. Feelings and ideas that cannot be put together in the mind, much less explained by mere speech, are somehow able to come out through my writing. To others, these stories, diary entries, and works may only seem like a somewhat random string of words, but to me, these are my personal secrets and views hidden beneath the obvious. Every work of writing is a bridge connecting the reader and the author. Reading someone else’s works are a way for one to dive into the spirit of another, to see what they have seen and to relive their experiences.
The act of writing has the power to invoke emotion and touch souls. When I write, I am able to recollect old memories and treasure them deeper in my heart than I did at that moment. By spilling all of my thoughts on paper, I am able to relive past emotions like joy, fear, sadness, and love. My thoughts are like the ink in a pen, gradually flowing out the more I write. As I write my thoughts down, along with being able to resurface buried feelings, it seems as if a weight is lifted from my chest as I cherish good memories and let go of bad ones. With these ideas kept safe behind words, I leave this writing session calm, with a sense of clarity and newfound emotions that were rediscovered while writing about past events. At other times, when I am caught overwhelmed in the moment, I will eventually find myself at my bedside desk, writing. Writing is usually my last resort because as a rather extroverted person, I talk about my problems rather than writing about them. So, whenever I write, these are the times when I feel the most isolated and alone. At this point in time, I will either pull out my diary or have my thoughts go into a file on my laptop. Either way, whether I am writing about past or current experiences, I will always feel peaceful and satisfied, my thoughts hidden away. Like Stephen King emphasized in his essay “What Writing Is”, one “must not come lightly to the blank page” (King, 99). The blank page is a canvas for the thoughts of the mind to create a work of art on. For an artist to approach their canvas with an empty mind is like having a pen out of ink. This safe space is created for the expression of ideas and feelings, an unrestricted space where writers can freely feel emotions awakened by the act of writing.
Writing allows me to freely explore a world that I can create myself, reliving past experiences with purely my own imagination. There is so much to learn and gain from a written work of art because there are many deeper truths hidden between the lines.
