Why Do I Write?

Why Do I Write?

Why do I write always seems like one of those questions that should have some profound answer. Something about having to share your passion or outlook with the world. To educate or bring attention to something important to you, to those around you. Or maybe something more wax lyrical. I’m not under minding or mocking any of those reasons, they’re all great reasons. But, if I'm truthful with myself (which I always try to be) my answer is a lot simpler. I write because I really really enjoy writing and storytelling.

I could make it grander and say it’s my lifeblood, and that is true to a degree (although cinema also gets me out of bed in the morning) but it’s the enjoyment of telling a story that makes me write most days. It’s a selfish reason to be honest, because, if I stopped enjoying writing, I wouldn’t do it anymore, no matter how well things were going (or not.) I write stories for myself, expressing the ideas that have popped into my head. I really hope others enjoy my tales, but they’re truly written for an audience of one.

Enjoyment

I think my reason to write is important in this day and age because it treads an ever thinning line. A lot of times now people monetise what would normally be a hobby. Good at Photgraphy, start a Youtube Channel. Enjoy sewing, you should have an Esty. You like Skateboarding, you should post clips of your tricks on Instagram or TikTok. It’s rare to see someone just enjoying a hobby now with no strings attached.

And once it turns into a business, the joy can be sucked from it fast. Not always… but there is that lingering threat. And if you do fall out of love with it, even momentarily, pushing forward with it because it’s your business could permanently ruin that pure love for the hobby you once had.

I’m guilty of monetising my hobby too as I self publish my work, but I know for a fact that I'd write just for me whether I ever made another penny in the craft or not. I want it to be my career. I want one day to be able to live off my writing, but I've never written a word for anyone else, and frankly, never will. When I don’t enjoy something, I stop doing it. Hence no Social Media, or watching Football matches anymore.

Writing has always brought me joy, from writing short stories as a kid, to the scripts I wrote in my teens through to my late thirties, to the last few years working on different books. And all while I have that enjoyment, I’ll continue to write, whether the stories are read by anyone else or not (although, please read them :) )

Storytelling

Another big reason I write is my fascination with the art of storytelling. I find the structure of stories sometimes just as interesting as the words themselves. I read way too much Joseph Campbell and Christopher Vogler in my teens. Learning about the Heroes Journey and Character Archetypes. I was fascinated by mythology from around the world. Soon that love spread to script writing and Syd Field’s work on the Three Act Structure.

Storytelling for me holds a direct mirror to life. We’re all the heroes of our own story, and are going on a wild journey filled with ups and downs., peaks and valleys. I like that idea, even if I feel like I've had too many dramatic dips and low points.

Within my writing I never grow tired of playing with structure and format. Writing outrageous shit that still fits into the Journey. Hits the beats and transitional moments. Experimenting with different combination of character archetypes. I love twisting genre conventions, or applying them in interesting ways to genres they don’t belong in. My writing is a practical way to do those experiments, while also getting to tell a complete story.

I guess all that stuff comes under finding my voice. My Style. Improving as a writer. I believe I can only really do that if I'm writing for myself, rather than to a current trend, or even my own readership. I back myself, and hope to learn a lot more about writing while I do.

Creative Outlet

Then, there is the typical Creative Outlet side of things. I firmly believe everyone should have some form of creative outlet. A way to either express themselves, or take themselves out of the day to day grind of the world and disappear into something they love. Writing and Photography are my creative outlets.

I adore creating new worlds. Building a character from scratch. Telling an insane story that can’t possibly happen, but treating it like it is happening. It gets my brain firing. I can spend, days, weeks, months obsessing over the world I'm building for the story I'm telling and in those moments nothing else matters. However difficult my life is or isn’t at the time, the result is the same, I can disappear into my work.

Maybe some would argue that’s not healthy. That these stories are a way of escaping things I need to face, and that might be true, but I don’t care. I like living in the worlds I'm building. Moulding the characters I'm creating. And there is plenty of subtext in my work dealing with the things that matter to me in real life, even if I don’t make a big deal of it on the surface of the story. (the way I think subtext should be)

Writing is my way of expressing myself, but it’s also my way of telling fantastical nonsense stories. It can be both!

Life

Writing will always be part of my life. I know that, because it has been already for over forty years. I’ve stopped for little periods of times when things have gotten rough, and I'd stop again if I need a little break from it, but it’s something I'll always go back to. I always have.

Writing has helped me overcome grief. Gotten me through heartbreak. Helped me in my absolute lowest moments, and rarely by ever writing about the issue itself. Often, it’s just being able to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard now) and tell a story. Any story, no matter how absurd, or straight forward… as long as it’s one I've created and want to tell. That’s always the key part for me: I write because I want to write.

That won’t ever change.