“She woke up alone. Cold and heartless in an empty room. At least , she had him to think of. The one , who used to be always there. The one , who never dared to leave her alone. But the time changed him. And now he is not the one, he is nothing. He is just the ….” My finger’s standing over the keyboard, not knowing which letter to press. I stare the pc’screen for a while, waiting the words to come. Disappointed, I close the Word’s window and open the Google Translator. “?????????” I type in Greek. Enter. “xethymasma” supposed to be the English word. Oh, sh**! I open the Greek-to-English dictionary. Nowhere. I realized I had to think a new sentence. But, I gave up.
Because my mind hadn’t any other better words to describe it. Because I couldn’t write well enough, to show exactly what the character felt. And that’s how the writing art works. Expressing in words. To give the reader the chance to be someone else. To escape from the cold reality he lives.
I know that I have already done a lot of grammar mistakes. I could play it safe and write much more simple sentences. But then I wouldn’t achieve my goal. Every time I have to write something in English I spend a lot of time, thinking the best way to match the English sentence with the original Greek one I have in my mind.
But it’s not only the language difference that makes the writing hard to express your thoughts. It’s the whole transformation thing. You have to transform scenes into word. You have to transform sounds into words. You have to transform situations into words. And that sometimes isn’t as easy as it sounds.
To sum up, to achieve a writer’s goal you have to risk. Don’t follow essay-guides. Don’t write what you are expected to write. Write something unusual. Express yourself.