I’ve been writing since I was in middle school. (But not well.)
It’s one of those things I’ve always loved doing, but few people realize it. You don’t exactly go around shouting from the mountaintops that you’re a writer.
I’m sure some of us are familiar with the responses you get when revealing you’re a writer.
You can’t make a career out of that.
Can I read something you wrote?
Are you published?
Will you write a story about me?
No, I mean really published.
This isn’t why I write. And no. I won’t write a story about you. Unless you annoy me enough to put you in as a victim of a horrible crime. Then, yes, I might put you in a story.
But that’s the thing. I don’t write necessarily to straight up make money (although let’s be honest, a little extra cash is never unwanted!)
Instead, I write because I love to communicate. I’m a firm believer that almost everything can be solved when we sit down and communicate with one another.
I love to tell stories. A new acquaintance just asked me if I’m always so energetic. Yes, I usually am. But it’s because I love connecting with people through stories. Whether that’s stories of my every-day life or the fantastical musings of my head, my characters (real and not) speak to me.
I write to feed my own imagination and hope that I never lose that wonder at the world around us. I write to force myself to look at the world through another person’s eyes. To put myself in another person’s shoes and try to understand the way that they work.
That’s the beautiful thing about writing. We get to try to understand how another person sees the world. We get to explore other ideas and religions.
I get to put my mind in the same place as someone from an orthodox religion or who grew up in another time.
I get to treat each character like a real person and get to know them like I would a friend.
I get to discover people who would be a friend in life.
Or who would drive me completely up the wall.
I get to rummage through all sorts of information, including things I personally don’t have an interest in but need to understand for my characters. (This is always difficult.)
Unrelated to all my thoughtful and serious reasons on why I write, I also just want to laugh. I love getting to write ridiculous circumstances and all sorts of hilarity in the murder mysteries I write. Clinging to that is the way I encourage actors to do more with themselves and just let go and have fun.
Isn’t that the reason we all write? To connect and have fun?