Today is The National Day On Writing. No, really, it is. It was officially declared to be so by the Congress, so you know it's for real, and it's sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English. To mark the day, they have posed a question to the world, or at least the world of writers (that would be our world): Why Do You Write?
I love this question, and I love the answers it brings. We had a wonderful six-word memoir contest (inspired by the six-word memoir project at Smith Magazine) on this very subject, and I invite you all to answer it in a new form on She Writes today: tell us why you write in 140 characters or less. That way you can get in on the action (if you are a Twitter user) by tweeting your answer as well and marking it with the hashtag #whyiwrite. Our friends at the YA site Figment.com are participating, as is the The New York Times Learning Network and many others, so we will all be in very good company.
My answer?
Writing is my leap of faith in the face of impermanence and loss, my hope that it is possible to ease pain by speaking truth. #whyiwrite
What's yours?
I write to step back from the constant rush that is the stream of life. I write to sit on the bank, contemplate the steady flow of water and the forest around it with all of my senses and all of my past. In this reflection, I am more alive.
I am, you are, therefore I write. Daily life is fascinating, impossible to ignore. Aim to capture, savor, learn from each existing moment. Share. Write the art of life.
I feel good when I share my thoughts and ideas with others.
I write to heal from past hurts. To share joys with others. And to challenge myself and readers to go deeper
I write because I like to make something out of nothing.
Because the world in my head is so very insistent to get out.
I write because I must. Life unfolds. Thoughts tumble. Feelings stir. Actions manifest. I must write - for myself, to understand my truth. I must write - to inspire others to understand theirs.
I write to understand the stories I tell, to converse with a writing and reading community, and to explore this thing we call “humanity.”
I write to sort the information clutter that accumulates in my mind: Should it be sold, given away, recycled, or thrown in the trash?
I write to bring order to chaos, to give voice to my dreams, and to puzzle out the answers to life’s deepest questions.
I love words. I love language. I love to be able to fully express all that is me through writing.
Jen
I write so I can Breathe.
My writing is my journey to answers, my vision of hope and a voice for my faith.
I write because I can't not write. The ideas won't leave me alone until I set them free on paper. And if They reach another, even better.
Writing is my bid for immortality: in the words of Roman poet, Horace: Non omniam moriar...I shall not wholly die.
I write because I breathe, because I am human and the experience of being a living, breathing being in this world is too precious not to share with other writers and readers everywhere.
I write because I am a reader and a storyteller, because I want to leave something of myself behind, and because writing helps me understand that self.
Writing is like breathing--it keeps me alive. Writing is like eating--it nourishes me. Writing is like fine sprits--a distillation of emotions & truth.
I write because I cannot imagine not writing. I love the swirl of words on a page. #whyiwrite
I write to unravel the tangled threads of thoughts clogging my brain, hoping they lead to some new truth for me or someone else.
"Writing is the creative outlet that truly satisfies my free-spirited muse. Without it, we’d both be restless."
Here's what I wrote on Twitter: I write because my heart WANTS me to and my soul NEEDS me to. #whyiwrite
(I'm @lilywolf on Twitter. =) )
I write because I am a writer. It is who I am, not something I do.
Because it is a self-involved but unselfish act that dares me not to blink at what I know to be true, however improbably ugly or beautiful.
I write to get at the truth and to give it voice. Mysteriously and miraculously, I find that stitching together words helps to seam my feet with the clouds.