The Death of J.D. Salinger

J.D. Salinger died Wednesday of natural causes at the age of 91. I'm not going to explore the work of this legendary author and recluse, this eccentric, if not crazy, genius. Plenty of websites and blogs and media outlets will do that for us, pasting bits of his work in between long scrawls on his oddities.

Rather, I will use this as a chance to motivate others to do one thing -- write.

People make excuses about not writing. Life does get in the way, and yet somehow, even before his seclusion, life did not get in Salinger's way. He had to write.

According to the Associated Press:

• As a teenager, Salinger hid under his covers with a flashlight so he could write
• During World War II, he carried a typewriter with him so he could write hunkered in foxholes
• He has written 15 novels since "Catcher in the Rye." He wrote them even though he never intended to publish them.
• He hated writers and writing schools.

What these four bulletpoints have in common is that Salinger had to write. The stories had to come out of him, not for the reading public, not for the bottom line, but for J.D. Salinger.

There's a lesson in that for all our members and other aspiring writers, even if you never publish. Write the story. We are not likely to create another Holden Caulfield, but we will create something significant to ourselves.

Salinger saw the importance in that. Write the story.