FIVE REASONS TO WRITE

Every morning but Sunday I write for fifteen minutes—on Sundays I rest.

Fifteen minutes a day may not seem like much, but over the course of the week that amounts to an hour and a half. After years of experimenting with different durations and times of the day, I finally settled upon the fifteen minutes right before I go to my workout as best. For some reason, I do more in those fifteen minutes than I can do in an hour any other time of the day.

I do not think my way would work for every person; it may not even work for anyone other than me. Which is why experimentation is necessary to find the best writing window. But whatever that is, do it every day without fail, even when you do not think you have anything to say. It is a valuable habit to ingrain, for five reasons.

First, it reveals Vision. There is something about the act of putting pen to paper that opens a channel into the part of the brain that inspires the imagination. When a young lawyer tells me he is struggling with a legal brief I tell him to stop thinking about it and just start writing. It releases insight.

Second, it organizes piecemeal thoughts into an orderly belief system that is useful. Before I started my writing discipline I could not readily access my scattered and inconsistent ideas. I knew what I believed but I could never find what I was looking for when I needed it because my mind was like a messy file cabinet full of randomly compiled thoughts. By writing every day I was able to pull all the paper out of the cabinet and replaced each sheet in the file where it belonged.

Third, it provides a means by which one can better Articulate his belief system. This works in two ways. First, if you publish what you write through the internet and social media people can read it. But writing out what you believe also improves your ability to speak out what you believe.

I discovered this when I was writing out my closing statements to juries. Initially, I intended to memorize what I wrote so I would not have to read it (never read to the jury), but I found it to be impractical to memorize a thirty-minute closing word for word. However, I learned that I could paraphrase what I had written even if I could not deliver it verbatim, and this was far better than if I had not written it at all. For some reason, the act of writing improves the act of speaking.

Fourth, it may be helpful to others. A well organized and Articulated belief system is not only useful for the writer, but also for those with whom he shares it. There are times when I ask myself whether I could not put that fifteen minutes to better use, like more sleep. But then someone, often a person I do not even know, will tell me that something I wrote helped them with something with which they were struggling. It is then that I realize that I write not for myself alone, and I press on.

Fifth, so that I can be fully known by those who come next. I knew all four of my grandparents during their lives but know little about what they thought, believed, or learned through living. Were they people of faith? Did they overcome any major obstacles? Did they have any regrets? I do not know. My maternal grandfather committed suicide at about the same age I am right now, but I have no notion as to why. I know even less, nothing in fact, about my great-grandparents because I never met them. None of these people from whom I descended wrote anything down from which those who came behind them could understand who they were.

This will not be so of my children, or their children or those beyond. They can read for themselves that I am a man of faith who learned much from the obstacles he faced and the regrets he has put to rest. From there, it will be their choice whether to continue to build on the wall I started or to tear it all down and start again.

It will be their choice. And it will be through writing that I give it to them.