Writing is a passion for many people. It allows one to be imaginative and creative with their words and to tell their own stories and those of others. An analogy often used with writers is that they tend to think of their work as their own creation - sort of like their children, if you will.
Nonetheless, writing also has an unfamiliar side that many readers are unaware of. So, what makes a particular writer stand out more than others. Or why are some readers more attuned to reading the works of one writer as opposed to another? These are good questions, indeed.
Often, writers come from backgrounds where they have had to suppress their feelings and words to themselves. And writing allows one to truly free himself like any other creative art form. Incidentally, it is worth noting that some of the best writers have had the most miserable lives. Yet, they have found solace in writing and they have influenced the world with their work. A couple of good examples that come to mind are Ernest Hemingway and Silvia Plath. Plath took her own life after unsuccessfully coping with her depression. Perhaps there is no better way to describe the "unknown side" to writing other than her gravestone which reads, "Even amidst fierce flames the golden lotus can be planted."
Similarly, Ernest Hemingway supposedly suffered from depression. The iconic writer was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. He married thrice, and there was a sense of discontent about him throughout his life. In 1960, he was admitted at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for treating his depression, and he walked out of the treatment facility a year later. Despite the treatment, which included electric shock therapy, Hemingway took his own life with his own shotgun in his home in Idaho.
All of this trivia seems to suggest that there is a dark side to writers and in their writing. Hemingway published ‘The Old Man and the Sea' in 1952, which was his first novel in nearly ten years and was responsible for restoring his fame. Ironically, several of his books were published after his death, but some of his books like ‘True at First Light' is presumably one of the worst books written by a Nobel author.
Hence, the ‘unknown side' to writing lies in the very fact that life itself is a story, and the best of writers have led lives that have driven them to the brink of sharing their stories, no matter how terrible or insignificant it seems at the time.
