October 20th, 2016 is National Writing Day. 

This might be the single most perfect day for TFS to celebrate–a day in honor of writing itself. Though the day has only been around since 2009, writing has been the cornerstone of civilization for millennia.  As we learned in freshman World Civ, writing’s humble origins began with scratchings on clay tablets called cuneiform, or prayers nicked into turtle shells called oracle bones. Ironically enough, until the invention of paper or parchment, writing was often reserved for the dead; the point of writing something down was to preserve it for future generations, not to mention the amount of effort involved in the process. Even then, it took the printing press to come about before the written word could go anywhere. After that, though, the rest is (recorded) history–as literacy rates soared, writing became central to a culture’s identity, a way of preserving their legacy and defining their ipseity. Poets like Shakespeare tested the limits of written language, and pamphlets like Thomas Paine’s Common Sense sparked revolutions. For some, writing and reading might be a chore, but it is an indisputable and monumental testament to how far we’ve come as a whole. I’ve written a feature on words and the beauty of the English language here, but in case you’re still interested, here are a few of my favorites quotes on writing that maybe, just maybe, will inspire you to get writing.  #whyIwrite

For the melodramatic: “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” – Ernest Hemingway

For the perfectionist: “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. ’tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” – Mark Twain

For those who prefer to show, not tell: “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” – Anton Chekhov

For the thrill-seeker: “How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” – Henry David Thoreau

For the nonconformist: “To gain your own voice, you have to forget about having it heard.” – Allen Ginsberg, WD

For the idealist: “The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.” – Andre Gide

For the pragmatist: “If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.” – Edgar Rice Burroughs