Shallow?

I am a writer.

Not an author, but a writer.

One day I'd like to be an author, but first I'd like to master the art of being a writer.

I wish it were as simple as being able to sit down and write. If that were all that it took, then I'd be set. But it's not.

Everyday, I learn brand new ways to improve my writing and ways that I can make it better. I learn about things that I'm doing wrong in my writing. I even personally see things that are unsatisfactory in what I write.

But today I discovered something that terrified me and I had to think very, very hard about whether or not my discovery could possibly be debunked but I had no such luck.

My stories have no theme, at least none that I can detect. Of course they all tell a story, but at the end of the day my writing really has no deeper meaning.

It doesn't frighten me because I'm afraid that I'll never be publish. It frightens me because I feel like it's something that's intrinsic to writing. Doesn't all literature have a theme? Do you notice while you're writing? Or does this special value sneak up and surprise you, woven in throughout out the entire story by the time you get to the end of it?

Certainly, J.K. Rowling didn't sit down to write all seven Harry Potter novels with the idea in mind that the entire series was going to be based on the power of love and friendship. But you look at someone like Lois Lowry and read The Giver and just know she had a bigger picture in mind when she wrote it.

At some points when I'm writing, I don't know where the story is going to take me, I just have faith that it's going to pull me in the right direction and it always does. However, I shutter at the thought that I only write meaningless, shallow words.

Anyone can tell a story, but I suppose it takes a lot of work to give meaning to it.

Perhaps, I have to dig a little deeper into myself and into my writing to find that meaning and then find a way to pull it out.

Fair Thee Well,
April