Why Write?
Have you ever thought about why you write? What is it that makes you spend, perhaps, hours a day scribbling or tapping away at a keyboard?
For some it’s ‘just a way of earning a living’. And why not! If we’re observant enough, and articulate enough, to express our ideas such that others will pay good money for them it would seem good sense to do so. It’s just making the most of our abilities in the same way that a fit or strong person might become a professional sportsman.
But for many, even if we’d like to make a living out of our writing, the financial rewards can be few and fear between. So what makes us keep on writing?
A common, and perfectly good response, is that we enjoy it: finding the right words, making stories, describing ideas or events gives us pleasure. It’s a creative pursuit . . . and in this materialistic, rationally oriented, world don’t we just need such an antidote? When the pressures and controlling logical ways of thinking take us over, writing reconnects us to our imagination . . . our heart and soul.
And perhaps there’s more to it even than this. With the encouragement of web communities and self publishing companies, more and more of us humans are allowing ourselves the opportunity to create stories, poems or other works of fact or fiction. It could even be consider a ‘sign of the times’ . . . along with the huge growth in ‘Mind-Body-Soul’ publications & workshops and interest in alternative religions and philosophies.
In my experience these factors are all very much connected: we write because we need to! Our urge to be poets, authors, journalists (or whatever), seems to come from a much deeper place within us: from our inner core, that’s calling us to question prevailing wisdom. It’s time for each of us to piece together our own view of reality. By writing we can stand back and develop our own religious idea, theories on fulfilment and what makes life worth while . . . or not.
Being a writer has, for me, been about growing up and become more aware, more conscious or who and what I am. It’s helping me to be me. From at least some of the large amounts or writing I’ve seen in many forms over recent years, I can’t helping thinking that I’m not alone in such a feeling. Through writing, we’re evolving.
Category: Articles
