Why do you write?
Have you ever stopped and thought why you write, or what makes writers write? I will admit that over the years, I haven't really given it much too much thought. While I was working 12-13 hours a day as a principal, there were always dozens of other things to occupy my thoughts. Since I have been "retired" I write every morning and edit every afternoon (at least every day I'm home and don't have an appointment or company) so again, my thoughts are used in other pursuits. But we had occasion to drive up and back from Florida to Vermont and Connecticut recently to visit my sister and our second oldest son. During those long hours driving or riding, when we weren't searching for foliage or checking the GPS and how it differed from the AAA maps, I settled in on the question at hand. Why do I write?
The basic answer is this: I guess I write because I have to. There is this certain something inside me that drives me, urges me, propels me to put words down on paper...to tell stories. That's what I think of it as...telling stories. I can remember sitting out on the farmhouse porch of my little grandma, eating fresh raspberries or blueberries, covered with sugar and sitting in milk while the fireflies fluttered aimlessly and listening to her tell me about "the olden days". To her, the olden days meant the days of her youth. She told those stories with such a passionate twinkle in her eye and a grin on her wizened face that as I sat, the sunset stretching across the green mountains, I could actually envision what she was describing.
Later on, when I was in school and it was story time, when our teachers would read from the world of books like Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift or The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.H. Lewis or the Tales of King Arthur, I would sit quietly with my head down and see the story as the teacher magically wove it. (I will readily admit to having wonderful teachers, all who could capture their whole class with their dramatic renditions from the classics. I was lucky...today's rigid and unrealistic testing schedules leave little time for what is really important like reading to the class.)
Then, as I grew up, I began creating my own worlds and stories, playing them out in the backyard, or weaving them to myself. My sister was eleven years older than I, so I got to babysit (actually it was more like playing with them) her kids at times. I created magical worlds for them out of our basement, taking them in a spaceship to the moon, or creating a pirate's ship to sail the seven seas! We spent countless hours imagining, laughing and playing. When my children came along, I read to them every night, or told them stories that I eagerly spun on the fly when they asked me for them, which was often. They seemed to love my little stories more than the stories I read to them from books.
So, I write because the stories have to get out. I write because I want to share the stories with others. I write because I truly love to write. I make use of what I have heard and seen and lived with all of my life. I write because I miss writing when I'm not. I know it's not for fame or money or to "be somebody" all though that would be amazing if it ever happens. But most of all, I write because I simply have to. The stories have a life of their own and I am the simple conduit who writes them down, gets them out so they can be shared. It feels good to write (not to edit or do all the other stuff, that gets a bit tedious).
Why do you think your favorite authors write? Why do you write? Do you find that you have to write as well?
May the dragons watch over you and the stories in your heart, head and soul...
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