The Typewriter

Imagine you live your life within a single room for one year. You're fed, watered, and you have access to all the human needs required to survive.

Aside from the basic amenities, this room has a only one thing in it: a typewriter.

You're told that you have to write a story; the most interesting, fascinating story you can conceive of. You're told that it has to be based in reality, obey the laws of physics and adhere to the basic principles of maths and science, but beyond that you can write anything you want.

Lastly, you're told that the story you write will be the way your life plays out when you're finally released from this room.

How many of you would write about office jobs, debts and the room that you're in? 

How many of you would contain your story to the mundanities of life and the environment that you're surrounded by?

I'm willing to bet that not a single one of you would write even one sentence about it. You'd write about love, travelling, self-expression, adventure, triumph and heroism.

You'd write about everything you'd ever dreamt. Everything you always wished you could do.

It dawned on me today that most of us are trapped in that room without even realising it. We're blindly writing a story we have no interest in telling, and even less interest in reading.

That room is your life. You're halfway through a story that is boring you senseless, and you don't even realise that you're the one writing it.

Now suppose somebody walks up to you and tells you that the typewriter is your way out.

What would you write next?

I've decided that I don't want my story to consist of the same chapter over and over again.

I know that I can write a better story. We all can. 

So why don't we?

Explore the world and set your adventure somewhere else. Meet people and introduce new characters. Challenge yourself and develop the protagonist. Write yourself a book wherein you live a life where you dared to try at something and fail. Write yourself a book where you dared to try again, and succeeded.

This is your life. This is your story.

Make it worth the read.