This thought exercise began over the weekend, as I was writing a guest post for another blog answering the question “When do I write?” (It should run next week; I’ll provide a link at that time.) Just a few weeks ago, I wrote another guest post answering the question “Where do I write?”
I am grateful no one has asked me to write a post answering the question,”Why do I write?”
Because…
Do I stall because the answers are too many? Or too unclear?
I’d like to invite you, The Artist Road readers, to answer that question for yourselves below. Feel free to leave more than one answer. In fact, come back if you think of a new one after you’ve left. And comment on others’ answers as well.
I’ll be reaching out to some of you whose answers have inspired me to see if you’d like to write a guest post for The Artist’s Road.
Have at it!
The Artist's Road 
I write because I am a writer – I think it’s a different way of being in the world. Through writing, we develop a broader awareness of the settings and characters in our environment, as well as tuning in more continuously with the themes and stories of our inner lives. The fact that I make my living from it is a bonus, but that doesn’t define the writer that I am.
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I love that you don’t define yourself as a writer based purely on your income.
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Thank you, Patrick. You’ve once again scared the ____ out of me. In a good way.
I don’t think of myself as a writer. I think of myself as a musician, performer and teacher who writes to allow the verbal part of who I am be “seen”. It provides me with a means to exposing parts of me that could easily stay hidden in poetry and song. It also – with the blogosphere – gives me a way to freely share some of the things I’ve learned.
Seriously, thanks! I didn’t know that fully until I wrote it just now. And, as you probably know, I rarely edit what I write on the first try. 🙂
Playful blessings,
Stan (aka @muz4now)
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Well said, Stan. And many Artist’s Road readers see their primary muse as another medium–painting, photography, and yes, music. I could do another post, “Why do I create?” Glad you learned something about yourself!
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Like my yoga practice, writing helps me to breath, to think, and to understand. It helps me to forge relationships with others and to appreciate the world and all that it has offered me. Writing teaches me how to be a better mother, daughter, sister, wife, and friend. Writing helps me to ask all the right questions, and leads me to all the answers.
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“Writing helps me to ask all the right questions, and leads me to all the answers.” Fantastic!
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To be very honest, I think its because I have a lot to say (I can hear my family inserting some wry comments here) and I’m always reflecting. If I didn’t write it out, I wonder if I could go to sleep at night?! It lessens the burden on my family and friends and is a way to manage my more introverted nature while still sharing my ideas and thoughts, not to mention my creativity!
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I love this answer, Carrie, not just because you brought in creativity, but because of your opening insight; a writer better have a lot to say, or I don’t want to read her! 🙂
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Haha thanks Patrick!
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You bet!
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I write because I have to….if I don’t I will go crazy. You have to get that stuff out. I love to write it takes me away from my problems,,,
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I think many people can relate to this.
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I think so too…!
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As an introvert called to do extrovert-type work (speaking, consulting and speaking coaching), I know that writing gives me the energy that makes it possible for me to be with people so much of the time. Writing is how I capture wisps of ideas and turn them into solid, meaningful contributions to others. Writing for reading is so different from writing for speaking; yet when I invest in quality writing I see more clearly how to transition those ideas into writing for speaking. I’ve long found that by working at the farther-most edges of comfort or habit I expand the boundaries. Writing it first is a safe way to stand at the edge of a cliff and figure out what works. Some of my first drafts are very inappropriate for the intended audience, yet it’s by seeing them and reading them that I realize the issues and re-write my way to a speech that makes an indelible and positive connection with my audience.
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Fascinating, Susan. I too am someone who is by nature introverted, but who also is in a line of work that involves a lot of engagement with large groups and strangers. I don’t think I had ever thought about my writing as a bridge for that transition. I need to reflect on that.
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I’m with you – there’s a pause in my mind. I’ve been writing since high school (songs), and landed my first publishing deal with EMI/Virgin at 26. At 53, I’m still writing songs and have added novels and a screenplay. Writing is like breathing to me – natural and necessary 🙂 I guess I’ll quote a song of mine: I hate when words are far away. I believe words can save the day. Sometimes they do. I know they’ve saved me.
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Lisa Ann, I’d note that Stan (above) is a musician, and ArtistThink (Carrie, above), is a visual artist. Like you, many artists “write” in different ways.
I love those lyrics! Thank you for sharing them.
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I write because the voices in my head crowd and pester me for more room, more oxygen. Once they find a comfortable spot, a quiet corner, or the riotous place in the middle of the page, my characters warm into telling their stories, make room for others, who then flood in, crowd and pester, and so it begins again.
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You know, I know you love to write, and this answer is a reflection of your love. But the way you describe it–you surrender to the voices, and they repay you by inviting in more voices–sounds a bit alarming! 🙂
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Good morning, Patrick – I write because I must…..I have a “place” to express myself – how I feel and how I see the world. I am an artist; and recently started a Blog. Also, am working on a book. I have always written since the time I could hold a pencil and describe the trees, the spring forget me knots, the break up of love. I
I express in words what others feel and think; but, cannot put down.
Every person has a story; and for me it is worth meeting them.
I am only total free when I write and when I am in my studio.
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What a beautiful description, Shirley. So many thoughtful insights here, including how you started so early. Lisa Ann (above) must have started early, based on her songwriting success; I have found in interviewing artists that many can remember their muse dating way back.
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I write because (1) it’s fun, (2) it helps me process my thoughts, (3) I get to contribute more to the conversation than if I have to wait for my turn to talk, and (4) I get to communicate with people I will never meet.
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All great, Sue; although I’d amend four to say people you’d never normally meet but might some day. I’ve been fortunate enough to meet in person a handful of people I first met through blogging, so you never know!
I’d note you’re also a good blogger, and you showed that by creating a numbered list! 🙂
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I was wondering if you’d notice that. ;-D
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Of course!
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I actually just answered this question on my blog Monday. (www.climbingoutofthevalley.wordpress.com) I write because I can’t not write. It is my soul deep passion. There are words that are clawing to get out.
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What good timing! Thanks for sharing the link and your thoughts.
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I write for many reasons, some as trivial as being able to stay home with my cats and have plenty of alone time, others as important as figuring out what I believe. But I think more than anything, I write as a function of change. I write about fear, grief, and dark things because in writing them, I can make them beautiful. I think there’s something fundamentally satisfying about turning ugliness into beauty; it’s a small measure of control over the sad things of the world.
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Are you alone, Annie, if you’re with your cats? 🙂
As for this: “I write as a function of change.” Wow. Your explanation of what you meant is quite powerful, and has me now reflecting on what I am doing in my memoir writing. Thank you.
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I write to have fun and entertain myself. I write to find out what I know and to pass that on to others who might benefit. I write to identify and work through my fears and to help others do the same, as well as to inspire them and give them practical ways to live their creativity. I write because I love telling stories in the written form (as opposed to verbally, where I definitely don’t excel at storytelling). I write to explore mysteries and capture magical things I’ve noticed in the world. I write to discover wisdom inside of me that I can use to guide my life. I write because, every time I see the word “writer,” I get a thrill of excitement and want to be that.
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Hi Milli! I think the reason we found each other so quickly once I started this blog is that we are similar in many ways, and I can see that here. I easily could have written this answer myself, particularly if answering the question, “Why do I blog?” And that last sentence probably resonates with any writer; writing is too hard to press forward with if you didn’t get that thrill from associating yourself with that word. Thank you!
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I write because of all the aforementioned reasons and for one more reason that just may underlie them all — I am compelled by the promise of coming undone. What do I mean by that? The best stories lead protagonists to a loss of faith in their belief systems. Such bewilderment is the doorway to deeper truths, even our higher nature. As readers, we are nourished by this vicarious experience of “opening up”. I haven’t quite yet figured out how that works, but it explains our insatiable (beyond all reason) appetite for stories. For writers, it works the same way. We write to create these critical moments of transformation — and because they nourish us at the deepest level. We are actually encouraging our own “awakening” by consuming stories, and perhaps even more so by writing them. What say ye to that!?
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I was hoping you’d comment, PJ, because I knew you’d bring something insightful to the conversation. And you did. I love the premise–“I am compelled by the promise of coming undone”–and by your explanation, particularly the notion of opening up. And, of course, I love that you admit you’re still on the learning path; not having all the answers but seeking them out is the heart of The Artist’s Road. That’s what I say to that!
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Oh, Patrick, what a great question! I really like everyone’s answers here, mostly true for me too and very inspiring (thanks, all). Here is my take:
I write because writing is really the only time I feel the most fully myself (when I’m writing what I truly need and want to write).
Like Milli, I’ve always strongly identified myself as a writer, from the age of 5 or so. I believe I’m a born storyteller and (“I see metaphors, people!” hehe).
I write because I’ve found that others may find value and some benefit in what I share, and it’s more freeing, exciting where the muse leads me, and less painful in the long run to get it out and give it away, rather than to resist the strong urge and keep the words locked up inside.
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“I write because writing is really the only time I feel the most fully myself.” All of your answers are great, Carole Jane, but this one spoke to me. And as to your writing from an early age, not just Milli has mentioned that.
Have you ever seen the short film I made of clips from various artists answering the question, “When did you know you were an artist?” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ2SnRd34zM
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Oh, what an inspiring video, Patrick; so glad you reminded me of it, thanks! I had forgotten some of it since the first viewing, not sure how long ago that was now. Brought tears to my eyes 🙂
I’m also glad we share the affirming experience of feeling fully ourselves when we’re writing. I’m truly grateful for you, your unfailing encouragement, and and your work.
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Carole Jane, I’m glad you liked the video, and thanks for tweeting it! Brought tears to your eyes; all I can say is wow.
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Like others have already said, I write because I must, have to, find it fulfilling, love words . . . . and for me, there’s ink running in my veins as the daughter of a printer/publisher and the niece of a printer. What else could I do but write?
In writing, I find a place where my joy of words and the flow of ideas in my mind come together on a page (OK, the computer screen), and instantly I’m happy. Happy because it came together, happy because I can share it with others, happy because hopefully I’ll make a difference somewhere out there in the big old world.
To not write is like waking up and being told that today I can’t breathe! It would be the end of me as I know me, the God-created, word-loving, writer me. Why should I live with all these stories locked up inside me just begging to come out? I have things to say, stories to tell, and I must share them.
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Ah, I love that someone has shared that ink runs in her veins! I often find writers spawn writers or were inspired by writer relatives, and you can expand that to printing and publishing. Perfect.
And I know the joy you’re describing when the words come together on a page, or a computer screen. (I, too, still think of the page, as in a composition book or a typewriter sheet, but I digress.)
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Glad I’m not the only one still thinking of the page, a piece of paper! 🙂
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There are some of us old-school folks left!
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I write because it’s fun and exciting.
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Thanks, Cynthia! You win the “concise” award! 🙂
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Hehe…when I thought about it, that’s what it all really boiled down to, Patrick. I could name 15 or 20 more reasons, but I’d be lying if I said they mattered even half as much. 🙂
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I think a sign of a good writer is knowing what she wants to say and saying it efficiently!
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Hi Patrick
I once said, with my tongue firmly in my cheek, but also with an element of truth ‘I write because it’s like a disease that I can’t shake’. And then followed it up with, ‘I know what your thinking; why infect others with it ?’
My answer to them and myself was, ‘others have a choice they can chose to be infected or not’
‘I do not have a choice I’m already infected’
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Jim, I just love this response — “because it’s like a disease that I can’t shake.” May I use it or have you copyrighted it? 🙂
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Hi Sherrey, you are most welcome to use it, I probably pinched it, unknowingly, from someone else.
kind regards
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“Guess what? I got a fever! And the only prescription.. is more cowbell!” Okay, that is Christopher Walken in an SNL skit, but it came to my mind. In your case, writing isn’t a cure, it is more a maintenance prescription. Great simile.
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I write to connect others with my words, to share stories with deep themes that (hopefully) make people truly sit back and say, “I never thought about that.” And I’m realizing, more and more, that my writing is a way for me to make sense of the world around me and the people within it.
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Hi Melissa, thanks for sharing this! I feel I know you a bit through your blog and Twitter, but now I feel I know you a bit more. And I find writing helps me understand the world, the people within it, and also me.
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I write because it helps me deal with a sometimes ugly world.It allows me to escape in a way that wallowing in TV and videos can’t. Writing takes me to another world and that can be very seductive.
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And, to build on what you’ve written, when you write you choose the path to that other world; TV takes you where it wants to go. That may be part of the seductive power of writing; the omnipotence.
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I write for lots of different reasons…..to escape, to get the thoughts down on paper, as a creative outlet, to communicate with others, because I have to, because I enjoy it, because it’s probably the one thing in my life that’s mine, and mine alone, to grow as a person, to learn, because I love words and the feel of a pen gliding across paper.
I’m sure there are loads more that I’ll think of once I post this moment lol
Xx
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A lot of “because” there, Vikki, all good ones! If you think of more, please come back and share.
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ha ha ha….I think I got a bit too enthusiastic there 😉
Will do xx
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Why is the “why” so hard to address? I suppose it’s because I’ve had to defend my writing with people who don’t understand my motivation, who see writing as a hobby, nothing more. Maybe it’s trite to say I write because I can’t NOT write, but it’s true.
I taught creative writing to high school kids for more than twenty years. For most of those years, I sponsored a student literary magazine that won some great national awards. I poured endless energy into those kids, and they learned to write. Even the least motivated usually came away from that class better readers and writers. The best of them? Ah, they were my joy. They were responsive to feedback, they revised, they wrote wonderful work. They discovered something in themselves. Some of them went on to writing and publishing careers. Others write blogs now, about cooking or motherhood or travel. Their love of writing is still there, and that pleases me no end.
So through teaching, I learned a lot about the craft of fiction and poetry and memoir. I knew how to teach it, but could I write? I thought I could, but at the end of most days, I had so little creative energy left. And yet the urge was there, and once I started, I couldn’t stop.
Now I’m retired, the time is there, and I’m writing up a storm. Yet, even with a few published stories and two novel drafts under my belt, there are times when I get frustrated and stuck and swear I’m going to toss the draft and never write again. I pout. I fume. I struggle, but eventually, I get over my little swivet, and after simmering for a while, an idea surfaces, a breakthrough of sorts, and I’m off. At it again. I can’t help it.
Sorry to be so longwinded here. I’m explaining me to myself, I guess. Thanks for making me think about the “why,” Patrick.
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Gerry… I appreciate you looong comment. And I like that word “swivet”… I’ll have to look that up. But back to the “why?” I don’t think there’s anything more important than the why. It must contain the jet fuel for our obsession. Consequently, I think the “why” lies at a much deeper level than that of “fun” or even “excitement”.
Consider this: this perplexing “why” is not unrelated to the heart of our story. Is that possible? Our compulsion to write fiction has everything to do with our protagonist’s struggle. But I think it’s even deeper than that. At the heart of every story there’s a transformation that can only be described as “mystical”. Well, little wonder then that this “why” is “hard to address”, as you say. And it certainly isn’t a waste of time to dwell upon it. I can see a lot of dwelling going on in this blog post. So, thank you, Patrick, for getting us “dwelling” so passionately.
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Is it good that I have us dwelling on something that is mystical, and thus incapable of being fully defined? 🙂 Thanks, PJ, it is a fun discussion, regardless of whether the complete answer is attainable.
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PJ, I love what you say here . . . “Our compulsion to write fiction has everything to do with our protagonist’s struggle…. At the heart of every story there’s a transformation that can only be described as ‘mystical’.” Yes! You nailed it. And concisely, too. : )
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Yeah…the struggle, the transformation, the journey toward clarity…and the language, oh, the words! Finding the exact right words to convey the thing I want to convey. That challenge of that is one thing I love.
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Wow, Gerry, I loved this response. How fantastic for you that you were able to inspire others, AND see the results of that inspiration. Thank you for sharing this.
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I think I write to tell a story. And then I write it again to see it. If the story continues to make my heart thump, I write it again to understand it.
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Hey, calliefeyen… that’s brilliant. And so brief. That’s the basis of an entire philosophy of writing. Pardon me while I “borrow” that. Is Callie Feyen your real name? I want to credit you accurately.
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Thank you, pjreece! I would be honored if you “borrowed” what I said. Yes, Callie Feyen is myreal name. Could you contact me when if you use it in a post or something? I’d love to read and comment on it. http://www.calliefeyen.com
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PJ,
Callie is a friend of mine, in my local writer’s group here in DC. Last night in the blogging class I teach at The Writer’s Center she blew folks away with a post of hers. So glad the two of you are now connected!
And Callie, I agree, it’s brilliant and brief.
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You are too kind, Patrick. Thank you. Iron sharpens iron, and writing alongside you has helped and encouraged me tremendously.
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Writing, I believe helps me work things out and make sense of the senseless. In many ways I am a hermit. I nest. I ignore the outside world because it scares me. Don’t misunderstand, I’m not an agoraphobic. I can speak in front of many and I am a generally confident person, but I have difficulty making sense of the ugliness in the world. Writing is the vehicle through which I confront my fears and act against them.
Also, writing is one of the few things I’ve always felt confident I could do well. I believe in words. I enjoy wrestling them until they are crisp and precise. I see words, the ability to write and read them, as the single greatest gift God has given mankind. As such, I revel in words, I cherish them, and I like playing with them.
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I don’t think you’re agoraphobic. You’re like many writers I know and have interviewed as a journalist. There is a reason some creatives pursue acting and some writing. You say writing is a vehicle in which you confront fears and act against them. I LOVE that insight of yours. I think other creatives who might be more directly engaged with others might use their art for the same reason, just in different ways.
“I believe in words. I enjoy wrestling them until they are crisp and precise.” I love this; you’re a word wrestler! Language is a great gift.
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I write because it’s the best way I can communicate with everyone else. I stumble when I speak, when I try to articulate what beauty and terror and humour I see around me. Face to face I will hide my true thoughts, fearing judgment or ridicule, wearing a mask of social acceptability. If I didn’t write I would never capture what I truly think.
Plus, after a long, baby-induced gap in my writing life, on the days I get some words down I am *invincible*.
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Joanne, thanks for sharing this very personal insight of yours. I have a friend from my MFA program who, I suspect, would say the same thing. I actually got to know her first through the words she shared in workshop, and my love for those words allowed her to accept face to face contact. She is a beautiful person in every sense of the word, and I’m grateful that words allowed us to get to know each other.
And yes, I understand the power you feel! Kudos for stealing time to write.
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I’m a bit of a mercenary and a bit pragmatic. I write because I’ve always been paid for it in some form or fashion. Sometimes I’ve been paid quite well. Writing has always been a requisite in my profession. I started off as a news reporter then became a policy analyst. Turned freelance journalist and now I have a lovely agent representing my work. One thing that I think many people don’t consider is that writing is not an innate talent; almost anyone can cobble words together to form a sentence. Rather, it is a highly complex skill that must first be learned, then cultivated and regularly exercised. I went to university and for six years I did nothing but learn how to write. Why do I write? Because I set out with the intent to make it my livelihood.
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Well, that certainly needed to be said. Thank you, Lisa.
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Thanks for the comment, Lisa. Our career paths are eerily similar. I would say I wrote for many years because it was how I could get paid, but now I find there’s something deeper compelling it beyond compensation, and I’m still trying to figure out what that is.
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Could be something very simple! Perhaps writing was a very easy skill for you to learn compared to complex mathematical equations. I think that most people generally tend to love doing what they know they’re already pretty good at. 🙂
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Lisa, thanks for mentioning this. I started getting paid to write before I really knew what I was doing. I learned by being thrown into the news world with a 5pm deadline everyday. After 15-years of that…I started learning another whole way of writing–fiction. For which I am not getting paid enough to be said to be getting paid. It has been tough to get my mind around. I love what I do every day, but it’s challenging to work so hard and not earn any money.
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I hear you, Mary. I have really grown as a writer of creative nonfiction in the last year-and-a-half, but it hasn’t been a source of income. Literary journals don’t pay (and are hard to get in) and the travel memoir I’m writing in my MFA program I am paying for, through tuition. I believe I will some day earn money from this writing as I have from other writing, but it can be discouraging, for sure.
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Sometimes this seems a taboo subject among writers. I understand the whole-don’t quit your day job-idea, and I don’t expect to earn as much as JK Rowling, but I don’t agree with the philosophy I see on some blogs that we should expect to give away our writing.
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Mary, I am so with you on your view of writers and compensation. It is quite insulting to hear that we should give away our creativity, simply because it’s easy for somebody to take it, or that some kind of karmic force will send some other type of money our way. There is no shame in being paid for good work.
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Hi, Patrick. I’m new to your blog and figured I’d say hello. Per your question, I write because … honestly, I have to. Yesterday, I wrote a post that sort of sums it up for me (part of why a friend emailed me the ink to your post/blog). Clearly, you’re a busy man, whew! … but if you get a moment, drop by for a read. I resonate with what Gerry has said — that there’s something mystical about it. Reminds me of Stephen King in “On Writing.” He calls it “telepathy.” I call it alchemy.
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Alchemy. Love it! I look forward to visiting your blog.
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oops, looks like it was pjreece’s comment that discussed the mystical element.
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I’m a scientist, not a writer. But with all the science and facts, I need something to balance the see-saw, which is fiction – in reading and in writing. That also comes with the benefit of training creativity and imagination, which you need in research as well.
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I would argue that you are a scientist AND a writer. I have several friends who are both, including an oceanographer/novelist. Science can require a lot of creative thought, as you point out, and that creativity can be channeled in many ways. Thanks for sharing.
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Writing is the best way I know to express and muse and commune with others about life. For those of us who don’t paint or perform music or some other active artistic expression, writing is the outlet–it’s more something that I need to do to help me cope with my own questions and observations. Of course, writing has more utilitarian roles than the other arts, but mostly I see it as an expression of our own journeys.
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You have a number of reasons here, it seems, and they all resonate with me. One thing I learned in interviewing creatives of all types is that while their media may differ, they’re all seeking ways to express and muse, and express their muse. (Sorry, couldn’t resist!)
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Yes writing, as any psychologist will tell you,is great therapy. Writing can allow you to get outside yourself. When I’m in the Zone so to speak I can travel in worlds of my own creation.
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I write because of those moments of enlightenment when a thought, a word, a sensation or emotion comes to me like a gift that needs to be opened. Even if it carries pain, if it means opening up a wound, opening that gift and sharing it with others feels just right. I feel more of a person I was born to be.
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“… a gift that needs to be opened.” I read that and thought “Yes,” but then thought about how some emotions don’t feel like gifts. Then I read your next line, and had an answer to my doubt.
Your notion of sharing it with others ties in with an issue I’ve been wrestling with (and soliciting help from other readers regarding) and that is writing about others who are alive: https://artistsroad.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/who-has-your-creativity-sold-out/
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I write to communicate and connect. As you know I only figured that out recently. And I’m sure the answer will change through time too.
side note: I’m telling all wordpress.com users whenever I can to note that WP changed their comment system so that every time someone comments they have to opt OUT of receiving all the new comments on that post from ANYONE who leaves a comment. It’s terrible. Nobody wants that, but it’s hard to remember to uncheck the “follow comments thread” every time we leave comments places. The best thing to do as the host of a blog, especially a blog where a lot of people leave comments, is to go to dashboard> settings>discussion>then uncheck the box towards the bottom that says “allow people to follow comments” or something like that. It will keep people from accidentally getting spammed by your blog with TONS of emails about comments.
hope that helps!
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But wouldn’t that mean that people would no longer be able to follow comments? This blog is built around the comment conversations; I’m loathe to make it more difficult for people to follow them. Isn’t there a way to go back to the default that they have to opt in?
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I don’t know if we can go back to the way it was. I just find it hard to imagine that people want to receive ALL the comments. I understand them wanting to see your response. If someone isn’t a wordpress.com user (and therefore doesn’t see replies on a dashboard) I use the email function when I respond to the comment so they see my response in their inbox as it goes on my blog. They have to come back to the blog to see other people respond unless they really want 50 emails from my blog per post. I simply can’t imagine that anyone wants that.
My blog is built around conversation too, but still, I know my readers leave comments elsewhere. If they received all the comments they’d go crazy. I know I would. People will hopefully get used to unchecking the box that says “follow comments” but it’s a very sneaky set up now that forces people to opt out rather than in.
I guess I don’t have a good answer though.
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Patrick,
Aside from agreeing with pjreece’s comment above — and aside from “alchemy” — I didn’t really answer your question. Here’s an excerpt that I hope answers it better (from the blog post I mentioned). It speaks to a night when I read a piece (about my mother’s cancer and coma) at an open mic … and why I read even when nobody listened …
“I read about how radiant she’d been just a few weeks before her surgery, how beautiful and brave even as she’d gone through chemo. How she’d had a Carol Brady haircut when I was ten and we caught fireflies in Mason Jars. Read about the way I’d wanted her to rise up out of that ICU bed and be who she used to be.
I read because writing needs to be read or heard in order for the transaction to be complete.
Read because, in the ICU, awful as it was, I still held hope that my mother would find her way back through the roadblocked neuropathways. And, for that reason, the awful memory is also a comforting one.
Read because, turned out, she didn’t find her way back. Read because the part of her that would have returned my calls and said, “Thank you for the Easter Lily, sweetheart” is gone.
I read because, tonight, it feels like the writing is all I have left of her.
I read because … fuck-their-lattes-and-pink-cell-phoned-giggling-and-ring-bindered-snickering. I’ve lost my mother. Over and over and over.
I read because, in that poem, I’d managed to yank something powerful out of utter powerlessness.
I read because sometimes a piece of writing is alchemy or resurrection and, tonight, I needed a little of both.”
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Beautiful, Terri. I’m honored that you’ve shared this.
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Pingback: When Do I Write? « The Artist's Road
I write because it is in writing the disconnected bits of my world come together, the fuzzy bits come into focus and I gain understanding about my journey. I write because I cannot not write and still be complete in the same way. It is what I am created for. I think through my pen and paintbrush. And through them I capture the metaphors that inform and inspire my creative journey onward.
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Beautiful, Michele. I interviewed a visual artist once who said he thought through his pen, and then he took up fencing because the motion of moving a sword helped stimulate his creativity when he drew.
Yes, we are all on a journey, and writing is a way to understand our journeys.
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Pingback: Some Favorite Posts on My Favorite Blogs! And I Got Another Award! « Lisa Hayes Blog – For writers (& fans) of Women's Fiction & Roots Rock Music.
I wrote because it is the only way to know what I really think. That may sound strange, but it’s true for me. Writing clears my mind and enables me to see things I wouldn’t have seen otherwise.
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Pingback: Why do you write? | Morgan Leichter-Saxby
I write because writing is talking to myself, and i am the only one who can understand me :D!
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I write because I owe it to the characters. They have gotten me through so much and the only way I can begin to repay them is by releasing them into others minds.
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