Why Do I Write

I write.

I write because writing is powerful and there is almost a static electricity that doing it well produces. It zaps whoever comes in contact with it.

This post has been a long time in coming. 

Jeff Goins' query came through my Twitter feed weeks ago. I went to read his post on Why He Writes.

When he posed the question back to us his readers it hooked me and would not let go. I thought I should have an answer at the ready but I kept coming up with responses that felt half baked.

They question has been, as they say, 'stuck in my craw' ever since.

I started writing because I was a reader. I remember trying to copy down the little kid books I was reading word for word as a child.

That never happened. Maybe I was priming the pump.

Next came the class newspaper that a couple of friends and I put together in the 5^th grade. We were excited about our project although I remember it being more about art than stories.

Not that we did not tell stories, just that the art was well you know, the visual draw to it all.

After that came more reading. From that came the idea of keeping a diary. This too failed, like the book copying, because I had this idea that I had to write down EVERYTHING that transpired each day.

This takes forever when you stay up with it. You can imagine what happens when you get behind.

Finally, along came class assignments that did not completely suck.

These were rare although not nonexistent. Somewhere amidst these projects joy emerged. 

I loved experimenting with the power of the written words in its many forms. 

I wonder why I have never written a full song. 

I have a verse all made up in my head, with music but I have not fleshed out the rest of the tune and tale.

I have shared things that have come of my writing. I thought they were the reason I write. 

Those things have been by products.

The written word has the power to empower and inspire. I have shared on the blog a little of how I began to learn that.

When I started getting involved in online communities connected to things I am passionate about my voice finally fully emerged. It is a powerful voice.

People respond to what I have to say. In my youth I would laugh to myself and think I should be a headline writer or a newspaper reporter. 

I knew even as a young person that my words had the power to at least provoke attention and reaction.

It is only in raising my voice, again towards issues that I am passionate about via the written word that I see the greater potential to not just get people’s attention but move them, through writing. 

I write because I can. If no one ever responded to my writings, if I did not feel the surge of energy that happens when I get my point across, then I might still keep a diary but nothing more.

I don’t write to make myself feel better or clear my head. I don’t write for myself. I write to share because I have things to say and people are nosy. They want to hear, listen, react and respond.