On Writing – Why I Write

On the days that the words do not flow, this is the question on the top of my mind. Writing can be the hardest work in my world or the easiest. There doesn’t appear to be anything in the middle. The words flow like water coming down a mountain or they disappear into the darkest night without a sound or sign.

So why do I do this? There are a lot of other things that could fill that time. But I keep coming back to the blank page or the blinking cursor. And I write.

For me, it is part of a longer path in my life. I have spent my life telling stories. The first time I told a story in front of an audience I was in kindergarten. I filled my childhood with stories for myself. Riding in the backseat of my parents’ car, I would scan for enemy spies tailing me, while the backyard served as a battlefield and kingdom for a mighty warrior and his “sword” (usually a stick.) I would try out accents when I spoke, much to my father’s annoyance. My real life was a rather dull, suburban, middle-class existence. So, I told myself stories to brighten my day.

The next step was not the written page, but onstage. I have never had a fear of audiences; I love them, in fact. So, moving into competitive speaking and acting were the natural next steps.

I didn’t begin to write until late in high school and then into college. It was my college writing classes (thank you, Dr. Ralph Sturm!) that inspired my love of creating stories on paper. Here was a new way to use words to bring the images in my head to life.

The challenge was that writing requires a level of patience that is not natural for me. I am easily bored by routine and get frustrated when what I’m doing isn’t perfect the first time through. (According to experts like Dr. Kevin Lehman, this is not unusual in first-born and only children. I’m a first born.) That’s a problem for a writer! The work is always flawed at first, and a routine for writing is one of the few things that pretty much everyone agrees is needed for writing success.

 I began to do some work-related blogging that expanded into movie and book reviews. There were weekly radio scripts for my media commentary program that I shared on the blog as well.

So, for years I “played” at my writing. It was only with the challenge from my oldest (and only) child to “get serious” about my writing that things changed. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) showed me that I could produce quality, if initially flawed, work on a regular basis. I rediscovered my love of short stories and published a collection of them.

Today my writing is my primary mode to tell stories. I feel yearning to bring some of that oral aspect back, so I’m looking at ways to make that part of my routine.

In the end, I am a storyteller. Because of that, I am a writer.

Peace