Life Experience is Often Hard

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about gaining life experience if you want to be a writer. If you just want to be a reader, this can help you understand what goes into the, hopefully, amazing stories that were/are your favorites.

Certainly getting close to people can gain life experience for you, but when you get close to people, you can sometimes be hurt — and hurt badly. And not always because of some betrayal of the other person.

This was driven home to me, again, a week ago, when my best friend passed away suddenly. He was a truly brilliant man with degrees in physics and aeronautical engineering, and an IQ above 170. And yes, he was a real, life, honest to God “rocket scientist”. We had a standing “date” once a week to sit and talk about whatever popped into our heads. We talked about important things, like family, Jesus, and God; as well as entertaining subjects like physics, space tethers (our last discussion on the evening when his wife and I had to call the ambulance to take him to the hospital), politics, and other trivia. He left to be with Jesus two days later. He doesn’t hurt any more because he has a new body and a glorious life ahead of him, but my heart hurts every time I think of him because I no longer have the pleasure of his delightful company.

That’s what I mean about being hurt.

Life will break your heart many times as you gain “life experience”. You’ll also accumulate joys and triumphs as well. Savor both the good and bad, because the emotions you felt can be valuable grist for your stories. If you can transfer those emotions to the page and to your audience, you’ll be a much better writer and hopefully, your audience, the wonderful people who bless you by taking their precious time to read your scribblings, will enjoy themselves when they read your prose.