Wattpad writers you should know...

The Girl in the Mirror

We all have different reasons for writing. I do it because I get bored with myself. I don't have this grand idea that my writing is saving the whole world or even my corner of it. I write because I have what I believe are compelling stories and I just might have the words to tell the stories so that everyone can understand them.

I am much more strict with words as a reader than I am a writer (yeah it probably should be the other way around). I get pissed off at authors all the time. They lose their way a lot. I think, sometimes, that's because they don't have a good reason to be writing. Many do it just because they can or they are bored. That's me. And for that reason every other piece of writing I do will probably be crap. My writing often has no purpose to it and it shows in my writing.

And then there is Ty Smith. ( seechelle )

I remember reading one of her stories once and commenting that she was one of the most intelligent writers I had ever read. But there is so much more to writing than just the sharpness of her pen. There is purpose in every thing she writes. Her stories are compelling because they are honest and written from the heart. She takes you into her world and makes you see the things she has seen and feel the pain she felt. Her life is not for the weak.

When you get a chance and go by her page and check out her "Schizo: A Memoir" and try and imagine living in her brain. She'll have you running for the escape hatch knowing that perhaps you could not survive what she lives with every day. But if you choose to stay she'll show you how it can be survived. Her writing is her outlet. It's her way past the demons, real or imagined, that has a lesson for all of us.

Her page is full of stories that have hard truths in them. Stories of good and evil, search for meaning, and the oh so ever wonderful piece of fiction that lands you smack in the middle of your own limitations. That story makes you realize half-way through it that she is not talking about herself, -she's talking about you. You just never had the guts to say any of those things outloud about yourself.

So go check out my good friend Ty. A brilliant writer with one of the best reasons a writer can have to write:

To show us how to survive our own demons. How to not lose our way.

Go look at her stories. Then go take a good long look in the mirror.