1/9/2024 2 Comments Why Do I Write?Hey everyone! Around a year ago, I was in a huge writing slump. I didn’t know what to do or how to fix it, so I wrote this on a whim. It’s a lot shorter than my typical blog posts, but it’s still true to my life today. I hope you find it interesting. Why I WriteSomeone once asked me why I write. Buckle up, cause you’re in for a ride. I write because written words are how I operate. The written word, to me, is beautiful because of its simplicity. You can edit out all the irritating and bad parts. It’s so much more stable than speaking spontaneously out loud. It’s predictable. I write because I have these deep, rich alternate worlds where I can zone in and out of. There are some days when I get lonely - and it can take a few days to shake me out of that mood. When I get tired of my boring, so-so life, I can zone out and become a teenage detective or a warrior elf in the blink of an eye. I write because the storyworlds I build, the characters I invent, and the plots I craft are itching - check that, screaming - to be revived. They’re tired of living in my imagination - they want a life outside of my head. It’s no joke when I say that my writing keeps me sane. I write because sometimes real life can be too much to handle. The depressing, tragic lens from which we look at life can become a drag in no time. Writing helps me escape the confines of my poor mental health. But most importantly, I write because God gave me a voice. And access to paper. (And a pen.) And if I have all the tools - if I am gifted all the tools - why shouldn’t I use them to reflect the light back to the One who gave them to me? With my words, I can at least dare to shed light on the topics that I feel will glorify God and his character. You ask me why I write. That is why I write. That is the reason I give up a “normal” hobby to scrawl mindless words on a page. That is the reason I put stationary every year on my Christmas wish list. That is why I pull myself out of bed every morning and drag myself down the dimly lit desk where my legal pad and Pilot pen await me. That is why I write. Obviously some of my motives have evolved over the years (and my mental health is not near as floundering now as it was when I write this piece), but a lot of this still holds true. I read a book on writing Christian fiction once, where one of the authors noted that for writers, you either wrote because God gave you a calling, or you were offering your writing to him as an offering. I’m still not completely sure which one of those areas I fall into, but I want to do something for God. And I’ve been working on writing since I was in grade school, so it only makes sense to do that.
So what do you think? To the writers reading this, why do you write? Until next time, Cate
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Cate V.Peter Pan fangirl and latte drinker. Archives
June 2024
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