Sunday, October 24, 2010

Why Do We Write

What is it that drives us to take up the profession of writing? Why do we spend long hours alone, stressing over a word, or phrase, to make a work “perfect” in our eyes?
We certainly don’t do it for the money. I have written three books, granted they are for a niche market, but I did not write them expecting to become rich overnight.
So what is it that drives us, we writers, to continue banging away at the keyboard, or filling up notebooks until our fingers cramp up?
The simple answer is: because we can’t help ourselves. I personally love to write, to experiment with new words and ideas, to expand my talents into another genre, to push the limits and boundaries of my own creativity.
Do I hope to make money? Well, of course, but that is really not the driving forces, now is it? If I wanted to be rich, I wouldn’t have chosen writing as my profession. Realistically, many writers never support themselves solely on the money made from their writing. They have “real jobs” and write before work, after work, at lunch time, when the kids are taking a nap, or when the entire family is asleep, and only the writer, alone, is still up, struggling with just that right word.
Those of you aspiring to be a writer, welcome to the glamourous life of writing. It can mean long hours alone, many sleepless nights, endless rewrites, and, depending upon your genre, weeks of research from books that haven’t been touched in fifty years. But, just keep the prize in mind: the electric feel of holding, in your hands for the first time, your completed work, as perfect as it can possibly be.

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