My friend Mac

Turn me on, you know you want to. I don’t care what they say about insomnia and my blue light being bad for you, keeping you awake. I know they say that it's better to read from a hard copy book when you can’t sleep, rather than my bright, glaring screen. Still, my possibilities are limitless. I have so much more to offer than flimsy pieces of paper bound together in one single volume. Besides just reading, you can surf me like a wave and travel anywhere you like, find out anything you need. You can reach out to others. You can watch movies, listen to music, look at pictures, and best of all, write your own words. Through me, you can create your own world, live in it, breathe in it, wallow in it, and invite others to join you. So dive right in. Submerge yourself.

After all, that’s why you are here tonight. You know you need me. You need me to work my magic, to be the conduit between your thoughts and visions and the printed word, the immortal story you want to weave. A story that may last forever, long after my charge has worn off and you are forced to plug in my adaptor. Without me, those words would have no life of their own. They would be stuck in your brain, never being able to breathe and see the light of day. I am the conduit to all that is holy and pure. Through me, and only through me, you can bare your soul for all the world to see. I am your balm, you salvation, your cleansing, your baptism.

Baptism into what, you ask? That is a good question. Baptism into the church of the writer, I guess. Maybe you haven’t achieved everything you wanted to in life, and I am your only hope for redemption. I am someone, you say to yourself. I am creative. I am an intellectual. I am a writer. After all, with me and my friend Facebook around, anyone can join the creative writing ranks. Whether or not you are a good writer is another story. Still, I can help you find validation. I can help lead you along the path to success. 

Everytime you use me to post a story, and you get a like or a positive comment, doesn’t that give you a warm, fuzzy feeling? You know you check anxiously after each time you submit something, to see if anyone has liked it. You know it gives you a rush when you see that someone has indeed liked your story. You know you compare yourself endlessly to others, scanning and nitpicking their works, trying to convince yourself that they are flawed and you are not. They are too wordy, their characters not fleshed out enough, or they are making simple mechanical mistakes. 

What’s that you say? I’m not being of much help tonight? The words are not flowing. Well, take a deep breath, sit back, relax. It may sound counterintuitive but sometimes things come more easily when we don’t try so hard. Allow my other good friend, the Muse, to take over my keyboard. He will work his magic and guide his fingers over me in a loving caress. He is my lover. We work very well together. He is in tune with my soul. Together, we create beautiful things. Well, most of the time. All lovers are off once in a while.

Your timing is very good. Sometimes things come more easily at night when the line between imagination and reality becomes faint. Stream of consciousness seems to work better at night for some reason. Barriers are down. We are defenseless. It’s why teenage girls love sleepovers where they giggle, divulge which pimply faced boys they have a crush on, or conduct seances where they talk to Mary Worth and attempt to summon spirits from the other realm. There is an intimacy and mystique about night that invites us to share our deepest secrets. 

So use me, use my keys and my screen, to share your secret thoughts and fantasies. And if you worry about exposing too much of yourself, if oversharing leaves you feeling naked and vulnerable, you can hide behind your writer’s mask. You don’t even have to post your real name. Use a pseudonym, a nom de plume. Anyways, you are writing fiction. It’s not real. No one can blame you for your characters’ eccentricities, weaknesses, and foibles. It’s not you. You are writing about someone else. Characters are more interesting when they are flawed. Nobody likes perfect people.

Don’t worry about being too wordy or not wordy enough. I keep track of everything. I count each and every word you type. I know that sometimes your creative juices aren’t flowing so well, and it’s a stretch to reach one thousand words. Other times, you need to edit, edit, edit to keep it under three thousand. Whatever your dilemma, I am happy to help. Tonight, for example, I know it has been a struggle. Speculative fiction is not your thing. You are more of a realist. Again, relax, we will work together to achieve your goal.

You have heard of the Butt in the chair writing club. You can’t achieve anything unless you keep with it. Keep your butt in that chair and keep typing. Creation is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration, or something like that, the saying goes. You have made it your mission to try to submit something every week, even if it seems like drivel. Everyone has to start somewhere. I can help you with that. We will work together to achieve that goal, that magic one thousand words. I know sometimes, though, you feel less than inspired, so it’s best not to prolong the agony. As a matter of fact, I can sense you feel that way right now, so I urge you to end it here. Counting down right now, this very minute, we are almost there. Almost exactly one thousand words.