An Open Letter to the President (who thinks he knows how to write)

Dear Mr. President,

You know, I was trying to avoid writing an Open Letter specifically to you. Mostly because I have too much to say, about your policies, about your mannerisms, about your level of intelligence. Let's just say that letter would be far too long for you to actually sit down and read it (not that you would anyway). There's a lot that we could talk about, and, at this point, I'm sure that this is not going to be the last time that I write to you. However, today, I want to take the opportunity to talk to you about something that I hold near and dear to my heart. Something that I have invested countless hours. Something in which I often sacrificed my social life or precious nights of sleep. Something that is probably one of the most important aspects of my life.

And that is the art of writing a book.

On July 3rd, you tweeted this:

Ironically enough, this tweet is riddled with grammatical errors (for example, "having written" should be corrected to "writing"). Trump has also made the exclamation point a trademark in his 'writings' on Twitter. In high school, I was taught that exclamation points should be used very sparingly, if at all. Our President's use of them makes him sound like a whining child. Well, I guess that makes sense.

I could go on and on about Trump's poor writing and speaking abilities, but instead I want to talk about what it actually means to write a book, and for it to become a best-seller. For those of you who don't know, I am an (unpublished) author myself. I recently completed my first novel, and am now working on the second in the trilogy. While I am not a best-seller like Trump, I will say that I probably understand the writing experience better than him.

Writing a book is like having a screaming toddler. When you have the time to sit down to play with it, it's quiet and wants nothing to do with you. But then, in the middle of the night, you wake up to it demanding that you give it attention. People all around you always ask when the toddler is going to grow up, but you don't know the answer because all you can think about right at that moment is how the screams of the child won't get out of your head, even though you already played with it for two hours this morning.

And though this toddler is controlling your life, you have to give it love and patience and so, so much of yourself. The toddler can scream all it wants, but you're never going to stop nurturing it, because just one smile makes the whole thing entirely worth it.

So, yeah, writing a book is sort of like that.

Also a good book, a best-selling book, can't just be some sort of jumble of words that are thrown together in one sitting. For something to be readable, you have to think about how every sentence is strung together, how the readers will react to pacing, and what the critics will think. Lots of people can write books, but not everyone can write one that's a best-seller.

It takes a special type of person to write a book that will draw readers in. We have so many distractions now, between social media, television, video games, music videos, and more. With all of those options, that require much less brainpower, what average American is going to choose a book?

If we're going read, it'd better be good.

I'm not going to deny that Trump has written books that have topped the charts. He's been credited as an author on 19 books, which is more than I've ever written. However, Trump always worked with a ghost writer. The ghost-writer for TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald ('the Donald'? really?) claims that "Trump didn't write any of his books. Ghostwriters [worked] on all of them."

To be frank, Trump lacks the emotional complexity and empathy to ever author a book. The only reason his books were best-sellers is because they had his name slapped on the cover. If Trump wasn't a reality TV star or a selfish business tycoon, I have no doubt in my mind that his books would not have been published. Books written by celebrities are almost always best-sellers, regardless of whether or not the book is actually good.

Books are beautiful little things. And most authors pour their hearts and souls into their works, whether they are fiction or non-fiction. It's a deeply personal thing, and sending your words out for someone else to read leaves an author feeling vulnerable.

In reality, Trump was probably not too involved in the writing nor publishing of his books. If anything, it was probably a PR move to improve his reputation and to show off how "smart" he is. Writing a book takes empathy, intelligence, and courage.

Three traits that our President lacks.

Yours truly,

P.S.