Why write? It gobbles up your time. Most of your social circle
aren’t big readers and will never open the pages of your novel. The chances of
getting published are slim to none, unless you manage to self publish and it’s
even steeper walk uphill from there.
So why? Self-punishment? Boredom? When you tell someone that you
are a writer that is always the first thing they want to know and the truth is
that I don’t have an answer. I am not a romantic dreamer. I have no interest in
“educating” the world. I am not a wealthy woman who needn’t work and can
fritter away my time however I choose. I have plenty on my plate already.
A few options have been given to me as possible motivation for
choosing an almost impossible career goal. The first is that, being surrounded
by an extremely artistic family while being quite probably the only person to
get a B- in elementary school art class (my only B- ever and I still resent it)
made me seek out another form of self-expression. It is possible too that I was
simply a bored teen with too few friends, who chose to invent a few in a way
more sophisticated than simple childhood imaginary friends. There is always the
chance that writing is the natural progression for people who love to read and
I always have.
I am at my happiest when I am producing a large amount of pages
and not even editing puts me off of my goals, so it must fulfill some sort of
need. I do not know what that need is, though. Perhaps it is merely a need for distraction.
None of this, though, is a good answer. What about you? Do you,
personally, have a good reason for this hobby/trade/passion?
