Why Write? - writercize #1

Every writer has a purpose, a reason hurtling them towards the pen, pencil, paper, typewriter, unfinished paragraphs floating in their brain.  

Could it be a method of communication when other methods leave you silent or tongue-tied?  An escape into a fantasy world, or simply from reality?  An attempt to bring tears to a reader's eyes or evoke an "LOL" response?  To leave a lasting impression of your beliefs, feelings, fears, praise, thoughts?  A method of self-reflection?  A way to initiate dialogue between yourself and those of like- or different-minds?  An avenue to sell a product or an idea? 

writing exercise: What is your purpose?  Why do you write?

(Click "read more" to see the writercizer sample response.)

writercizer response:

It is a slow process adjusting my brain from the non-committal: "I like to write" to the identifiable: "I am a writer."  

I can hardly remember a time in my life that I did not write; I have vivid memories of learning to write letters on the kitchen floor around age three in an attempt to write something along the lines of "Welcome Home Daddy" for my dad returning home from a week teaching at outdoor school.  At age five I drew a picture of a mama bird and her baby birds and wrote a story to go along with it.  Throughout elementary school I probably rewrote every skit and fairy tale I'd ever read in the form of a play.  In middle school I wrote story after story about babysitting and other familiar events.  In high school and college I wrote to satisfy requirements for theses and papers, but while guilty of procrastination I always found joy in completing my research and sitting down in front of a computer to find the story and the right words to do it justice.  

I write because it challenges my mind and makes me feel, in my own small way, powerful.  Control over what I can communicate to the world is an incredible tool.  Writing forces me to reflect in ways that spoken dialogue does not permit, allows me to sift through information and pick out the interesting bits that turn my brain on.  I write because it calms and soothes me, because it makes me curious, because I feel accomplished when I read over a statement and know I am connecting.

I like to write.  I do not know which path writing will take me along and I hope to dabble on the way, but I now feel confident in stating that writing is a part of who I am and what I enjoy doing in this lifetime.  So I reach deep inside and throw out the old adage, my constant companion "I like to write."

I replace you with a stronger, and yet frightening and vulnerable thought: "I am a writer."