What Writing Means to Me

What Writing Means to Me ©

By Michael Casey

Well I tend to write every day now, it used to be 3 or 4 times a week, now its daily, well almost. It took me a year to Learn how to write properly if you like, back in 1987. Once I had finished writing my novel with the catchy title of The Butcher The Baker and The Undertaker I knew I had cracked it. Then I wrote a play called Shoplife which was a comedy about a shop, a store closing down, this was accepted for production by a professional theatre, back in May 1989. So whatever negative words I might get from anybody about my writing I know I’m good, if I allow myself to sound like an American.

So the question is what does writing actually mean to me? Well it’s something I can do, it fosters my intellect, and no I’m not trying to be pretentious, pretentiousness is the worst thing in the world as far as I am concerned. By writing I am showing myself at my best, I can’t run fast  like Hussain Bolt, nor be as charming as George Clooney, I am his 238 pound look-a-like after all. Despite my Health going down the drain these past 4 years, I am a Writer and I can still Write, so it is proof I am still a Man, a weak useless man some may say, but can they write like me?

Moreover I can tell a tale, I would say I’m a storyteller, I make cartoons made from words. As I said to Lilley in the Coop the other day when I had my photo taken by a nice Indian Lady, maybe my first ever fan photo. Well I told Lilley that I am just a pointing signpost and let people think the rest for themselves. I don’t want to be graphic, let people work it out for themselves, a metaphor is more fun after all.

As Jill once said to me when she was not talking to Jack, you lead people up the garden path. And so I do, I hope I lead them to laughter, and as we all know Laughter is the Best Medicine. And yes like all comedy writers I’ve seen or experienced loads of sad things, so the natural course of action is to be the opposite. Writing works for me because I don’t know what I’m going to write about till a minute before I start these short stories, so I’m only a sentence if front of you the readers.

At the moment Poland seems to have adopted me, I loaded up a few translations to my site and hey presto 18,000 readers in a couple of weeks. Why I don’t know, I’m doing an experiment for a few days by removing the translations and asking them to contact Fakt the Polish publication and see if I get a column there in Polish translation. Probably won’t work but you have to try don’t you?

Now the ability to tell a tale is the 2^nd oldest profession in the world after sex, somebody did something and there was somebody who told the rest of the tribe of cannibals about it. The storyteller may have become an after dinner speaker, in fact he may have been eaten for spilling the beans. Writers become gods and have women throw themselves at them, hasn’t happened to me, well maybe just song writers, or writers of self help books.

To create a story you are having mental sex, because you create something from nothing, and you are left with a warm glow when you finish and read back what you have written. I start a story and it flows almost like pouring water from a jug, if you asked me just to verbally tell a story without sitting here and writing it all down on the computer I may not be able to do it as well.

The action of typing acts as a magic means of translating thought and ideas into something more than words on a page. Yes I can tell a tale if we meet in Aldi or even the Coop, but my best work is when I’m sat here in my chair talking to you right now and putting all the words on a page. I don’t know what I’m going to write next, it’s like a broken jigsaw in my mind and when I type as I’m talking to you all right now the words form the jigsaw in the right order, the picture is formed correctly on the page, as if by magic.

Some are saying it’s a “Gift” and then belittle me the writer, but my journey started when I was 8 and out of fear of Mr Gallagher started to read intensely, then 20 years of constant BBC Radio 4 listening, then 30 years of writing, or rather the writer’s eye. I am very observant, or try to be so when you add that all up its 50 years. So if I can’t tell a tale by now then I’d have to be a Dunce or a Donkey. And the girls still don’t throw themselves at me, so I must be a really rubbish writer.

 https://www.amazon.com/MichaelCasey/e/B00571G0YC