[Current & Culture]The Prerequisite for a Life of Daily Writing

Writing Is Harder Than Walking
A Day of Choices and Questions
The Driving Force Behind Daily Writing

Not long ago, I wrote in this column about the importance of daily writing. Both writing every day and walking every day are important because they help develop the muscles of the body, mind, and knowledge together. That is why these two activities are emphasized. Walking seems to be the easier one. Even without consciously trying, if you live a busy day, you end up walking close to ten thousand steps. Applications (apps) that give you one point for every 100 steps you take or pay you a few dozen won for walking ten thousand steps have been popular for quite some time. I have accumulated tens of thousands of points myself and am still wondering how to use them.

Compared to that, writing every day is difficult. Even professional writers who make a living from writing would probably show an embarrassed expression if asked whether they write every day. In fact, I am the same. I walk every day, but I do not write every day. There are more days when I cannot write a single line than days when I complete a piece of writing. Everyone talks about the importance of living a life of writing and recording, but it is hard to do. So people often distance themselves from a writing life, saying they are not good at writing, have nothing to write about, or have no time.

The reason why daily writing is difficult is not just a lack of ability or leisure. We have learned enough and are not that lazy. However, there is a prerequisite for a writing life. To live a life of writing, you must live a life that creates things to write about. It is not something extraordinary. Even if you do not see something great, eat delicious food, or visit wonderful places, there are things to write about scattered throughout our daily lives. So, what does it mean to live a life that creates things to write about?

A life of daily writing begins with living each day as a good person. If I have lived today as myself, something I want to write about will surely arise. At least one thing I chose as myself during the day, a day when I created and answered even a small question mark. Such a day moves forward in the same direction and texture as the life I have set. It is a path that resembles me and at the same time a path of constant growth. Then stories I want to share with others arise, and I want to delicately record the emotions I discovered in the process. Even if I sit down to write something, if the day was filled with others, if it was a day spent doing things out of obligation and habit, anyone would feel empty. Even if I walked tens of thousands of steps from morning to late at night and did what I had to do, if it was a day lived without my own choices or questions, it was just a busy day, a day of stagnation or regression.

Ultimately, a life of daily writing can only be lived by those who have lived a good day. We must live each day as good people to continue writing, creating stories within our own world, and growing. Even if you record yourself living within others’ frameworks in pretty, cool, and enjoyable language, it is meaningless. The reason I cannot write every day despite making writing my profession is probably because I am not doing that simple thing well?living as a good person.

Kim Minseop, Social and Cultural Critic