Thursday, July 8, 2010

Why I write

Back in May, I read a blog post by the amazing Kelly Rae Roberts and watched a video she wrote about. The video was geared towards business people and how they need to understand the "why" of their product. After watching it, I decided that I needed to figure out, for me, the reasons that I write. So, I did.

Then, last June when I was at the Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers (WIFYR) Conference (which was totally worth the $), Jennifer Hunt, the editorial director of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers told us in a plenary talk that we should figure out why we write.

Then, my friend Amy Jo, created a Why I Write meme, so I decided to write a post about it. And so, here are 5 of my reasons for writing. (My list is much longer than this, but I'll limit myself to 5.)

  • Writing is sanctioned day-dreaming.
  • When I write, I'm in control.
  • When I'm writing, I feel like the real me. So many other times in my life I feel like I'm faking who I am.

  • My writing will never deceive me. It will never turn in a poem by Shel Silverstein for an assignment and claim that it wrote the poem itself.

And here's the last one. This is one that I actually discovered at WIFYR.

  • I write because I need to tell stories of girls and women who save themselves.

That's it. There are 5 of my reasons for writing.

So, why do you do what you do?

5 comments:

Nicole said...

This has actually been my quest this year, to discover what I do and why I do it. I'm still trying to figure it all out. To find my bliss. To find what makes me me. So much of me gets lost in the day to day of being mom. And I've buried it so deep for so many years that it's taking a serious archeological dig to re-earth it. But I'm trying.

orangemily said...

I'm glad you know your reasons.
I definitely do things that make me happy and do things because it's "right." It may take some deeper thinking though to really figure out why I do what I do. I'm still working on it.

rbs said...

Love, love, love the reasons you listed! Especially, the one that states your writing will never deceive you.

Thanks again for your thoughts!

amanda said...

Ha, we're on the same path. I've been working on that this summer!

Chas Hathaway said...

What a great idea, listing the reasons WHY we do what we do!

I also love writing, and I think I'm going to have to think hard about this.

Thanks for the inspiration!

Chas