Why Write

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?