Why Must I Write?

I write because I’m a writer

“I write to exist in minds beyond my own.”

This question was posed in my writers’ group yesterday: Why must you write, and when did you discover you wanted to be a writer? I am grateful to have been asked that question at such a time as this (a season where I’ve let my writing lapse), and below is the answer…a work in progress.

Why do I write? I write because my love compels me to — my fascination and infatuation with the potent potential of words requires that I play with them. I must exercise new and glittery ones at regular intervals — I must find their meaning, absorb them, and receive the transference of verbal power. I am in awe by the idea that with a few strokes of the pen — or taps of a keyboard — I can search my personal lexicon quarry and build a structure that previously never existed. Writing is my Adam and Eve creation story — taking a piece (or pieces) and making a new and unique whole. I like sewing words together as a designer makes couture — fashioning them into something beautiful and bigger than life and odd…having the freedom to show off and hear applause.

Why do I write? The finite confines of my mind require it. Thoughts press up and against the perimeters of my brain like straphangers on a rush-hour train. The pressure must be relieved, or there will be pushing. The thoughts and words that carry them must be freed. They have things to do and people and places to make seen.

Why do I write? My introverted self-awareness demands it. Through the written expression of my thoughts, experiences and ideas, I come to know myself. Writing helps me to see me more clearly. When I stop writing, the shores of my self-understanding begin to erode. I must write to see and understand myself and my world.

Why do I write? Art moves me to it. I am inspired by the inspired. Creativity begets itself. A striking dance, an emotive song, a book I can’t put down, God’s painted sky at dawn, all these set my desire to write aboil — churning them up from deep down. I write because I enjoy reading, and I want to make what I love. It is a great joy to turn a page and learn something or find myself in someone else’s world. Writing is my ode to writing — and to everything beautiful.

I write in pursuit of honest communication. I write because I want to be able to mean…