Top Five Friday: Why I Write

That's why I write, because life never works except in retrospect.

You can't control life; at least you can control your version.

 ~ Chuck Palahniuk, Stranger Than Fiction

In August, I’m participating in BlogHer’s Blogging Challenge.  The theme this month is: Hot.

W

hy do you write?

No one ever asks a civil engineer builds bridges.  Or why a stockbroker does...whatever it is stockbrokers do.  They may ask instead what led them to choose that particular career or field of study.

But creatives get asked this question all the time. Just insert your medium of choice ~ why do you paint/dance/sing, etc.  It isn’t always asked with a condescending or disbelieving tone.  Sometimes it’s just mildly curious.  But sometimes it is.  Perhaps because creative careers are known for being less than lucrative ~ unless you’re the newest sensation or can market yourself like a mythical god.  Starving artists are real after all.

Or more likely to have a day job to help pay the bills.

On the flip side, I bet stockbrokers, engineers, and whoever else gets a pass on this question never hear: “Your work made me cry” (well maybe accountants and tax people hear that), or “That spreadsheet really moved me.”  The bankers, engineers, scientists, accountants, etc ~ their work is necessary.  But it isn’t beautiful.  It’s pragmatic.  But not soul-stirring.  It may even make the world go “round.  But it doesn’t power the heaven of the soul.

Hopefully my art(s) make some heart-warming contributions.  I write because:

Like Byron, I Would “Go Mad”

There is a lot of stuff in this little head.  Ideas for stories, poems, plays, songs.  Ideas for how to grow a better garden next year.  Even ideas for new crafts, costumes, parties, and even  ~ideas for new businesses.  Not to mention, I am always meditating and reflecting.  All those thoughts need to go somewhere. Preferably not off into the wild blue yonder never to be seen again.

I Love Words

Maybe that makes me a verbal learner.  I think it also makes me a visual learner, because no matter what anyone is saying, I have to write it down, or see it written down, in order to retain it.  And words are definitely the way to my heart.  I like actions too, but a finely worded letter or essay gets me every time.

There’s a Story to Tell

Sometimes it’s a short story.  Sometimes it’s a novel.  It might be only the length of a status update.  Or a letter written to a friend.  Even seemingly dull moments in life can have splashes of colour in the telling.  And someone is always open to hearing a story.  Which leads to my next reason for writing.

Someone Is Always Listening

I believe everything happens for a reason.  My life seems to serve as a warning to others more often than not!  But no matter what my experiences, someone is always out there, open to learning, open to hearing.  Open to encouragement, and change, and unconditional love and acceptance.

I Cannot Not Write

Even when I’m not writing with a pen, I’m typing on the computer, or composing things in my brain.  I have even dreamed of myself writing (I can even tell you what the desk looks like ~ but not what I’m writing).  When I’m not writing something profound for the ages, I’m doodling.  Or writing in the margins.

When the world is coming to an end, and there’s no electricity, no pens and pencils left, and probably no one left to read what I write anyway, I’ll pick up a charred stick from the fires of the apocalypse, and write my farewells on whatever flat surface is available.

Because I'm a writer.

Oremus pro invicem,

~ Mikaela

What is your passion?  What drives you to do it?