WHY I WRITE
Heck....why I write. All writers say they just have to write that they cannot stop themselves, it's a compulsion. That is right. I feel all those things. I didn't realise that when I first began writing. I knew I liked doing it and I'd spend all day writing stories up in my bedroom and only come out (reluctantly) to eat. When I'm into something eating or anything else is not important. I eat because I know I should. I'll snack on unhealthy things and quickly so I can get back to it - or eat while I'm writing. When the momentum is there, while I'm 'in the zone' I don't want to break it or the bubble might burst.
I write also because I have ideas that I must put on paper even if they don't go anywhere afterwards. Sometimes they are too personal to share but writing helps me to express how I feel and it gets it out of the system. These writings sometimes end up in something else, perhaps a line or a word. They may lead to other writing but not always.
Also I love playing with words, trying to express myself differently, from a new angle or someone elses point of view. I may choose a subject that is new to me. This is where all these books I've gathered come in useful....the 'how to's' of poetry. They contain exercises which take me into new areas and that is refreshing for me.
I began writing for me and it was later, much later that I wondered if anyone would like what I wrote. While I was happy in my teens and early twenties to take my latest song to Mum and Dad and say 'hey listen' (poor them what could they say!) I didn't share my poetry with them. It was only after I'd been published in more than one magazine that I thought I might actually be not bad at this.So I kept going, trying to improve, reading other people's poetry, taking classes and courses. But it can be a lonely process. I have one friend who likes to write and though we write different things we can commiserate, discuss and exchange information relevant to each of us. But a lot of my friends aren't interested so apart from maybe saying the odd thing they don't understand and quickly lose interest.
It is hard for me to take it seriously. I often feel guilty when I'm writing as everything else gets left. There is that tendency to think of writing as a hobby, something you indulge in now and then. I guess that's how it started. I'm not sure when I began to think of it as something more and think of myself as a writer. Who else feels that way? How do we overcome that? Do let me know.
At the end of the day I'd still say that I write because I love doing it and despite the frustrations there is something great about the completed piece, a satisfaction of words coming together that I feel proud of or that expresses that image, feeling and situation just the way I want. After countless edits it all falls into place and I wonder why I agonised over it for so long because the finished product seems so simple.
So, why do you write? What gets the adrenalin pounding to take up a pen and pour words onto paper? Please share.
