Brainstorming
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?
Like Scheherazade of yore, I write to save my life and tell a ripping tale that leaves my readers wanting more the next night.
#whyiwriteConnecting the dots, 1 by 1, word by word, filling in puzzle pieces until the picture painted reads Forgiveness #whyiwrite
Writing reveals what I think, hope, believe, fear, desire, loathe; it connects my inner self with the outer world in a way we can both understand.
It's impossible not to write.
I write because I have no choice. It defines, delights, improves and makes sense of my life. When I don't write, I'm lost. When I do I soar.
I write to ease mind and soul, and to bear witness to the metamorphosis of humankind as I see it and feel it. When all is said and done, one can begin again.
I believe everyone in the world has at least one compelling story to tell. #whyiwrite
Writing is my secret little happy pill.
Writing is an essential form of communication. When there are no words to be said there are words that can be written. When there is no one to talk to there is pen and page to which you can begin the conversation. Writing is the companion to your audible voice and silent contemplations. We live in a world of written correspondence to which the art of writing is a best practice. Writing is therapeutic. Every love letter is the “written” words of your heart; sometimes a covenant in words, a sacred part of every culture; it is an everyday profession both the norm or the extraordinary but the very cellular reason for why I write is personal, long before I was born Deity himself said “It Is Written”.
Habakkuk 2:2
Write it down and make it plain that you may run with it...
Writing has given me an outlet to express myself in ways I haven’t been able to in years. I find it therapeutic & am grateful for blogging.
I like the sound and pattern of the words,
the shapes and ideas.
I like the thoughts and dreads of other,
the love and nuisances,
the strange lands.
I have always written in my head,
called thoughts by others,
and wrote them down some years now,
but thought nothing of it,
then started blogging,
and people said, hey ho,
look poetry.
and so it goes......
To say the things, to share the moments,
so they are not dust
Oh my gosh you guys are amazing! I'm so inspired--keep them coming!
Why I write: http:/
I write to make sense out of chaos, to find beauty in impossible grief, and to feel grace through the beauty of the story.
Stephanie Urdang
I write to engage, inform and delight!
To quote mountaineer George Mallory, "Because it's there." At least it will be, once I've written it.
making up for quitting piano. because my father, my mother. the unhealed wound. the unspoken. my kid. mesmerized by the flame.
#whyiwriteI write because writing eases my soul. It's my calm in a stormy sea. I write because it makes me happy.
To bring smiles and inspire adventures big and small.
I write because I have to. I write so I don't go crazy. I write to hear G-d's voice guiding me to my highest good so that I can be my best and so that I can serve others.
I write to make you feel me!
I write to turn my face and the eyes of others toward mortality, that story hidden in a cloak, that dark conflict we all forget so constantly and so well.
I write because within the quiet space of words I feel the most at peace.
I write to to share my opinions and experiences to help both others and myself better understand our world and ourselves.