Why I Write

Why I write. Three simple words. Yet, when I sit here and try to type a cohesive and coherent explanation, I just worry that I don't have the time or space to fully explain my reasons.

Writing has always been a passion of mine. I always wrote stories as a child, I even entered into a Reading Rainbow competition. As I got older, I took summer classes with other kids who had the same drive as myself. In high school, I was a part of two literary magazines. I didn't have to do any of these things. I was never obligated by credit stipulations, or the desires of my friends or family. I actively and independently pursued such endeavors. Why? Mostly, because of my passion to read.

I read like a maniac. Plain and simple. Sometimes I can finish ten books in a week. But have you ever had a time when you finished a book, and all you could think was, "What kind of crap was that?" Even though writing is essential to our communicating with all the people around us, it is astounding how poorly some people practice it. When these people try to make a profession out of it, let's just say it leads to a lot of hair pulling and frustration. What is the point of this diatribe? Whenever I finished, or put down, these kind of books, I thought to myself, "I can write something so much better."

I am a daydreamer. I come up with scenarios nearly constantly, trying to guess what my friends will say before they finished their sentences, or toying with how one event will go if a certain person acted or reacted a certain way. I can't help myself. I think sometimes it is my escape for a reality that can be much too mundane for my liking. My favorite genre of book being fantasy/science fiction, I am more than wrapped up in the imaginings of the impossible. How long as a kid I waited for my Hogwarts letter, never to have it arrive, or hoping someday I would find a dragon egg.

Writing stories was just something I did as a kid, on those days when I realized that maybe this world may not have magic, or faeries, or vampires, but any place I could write and describe could. Writing for me is about creating something no one has ever written before. I may be wrong on this, but I believe someone said there are only seven plots, and the rest are just details. At first, this can be very discouraging for a writer. But I find it thrilling. Say, for example, how "The Lion King" is based of Shakespeare's "Hamlet". When you start to pair their similarities, this becomes apparent. However, if you look at either with their style of writing, the language used, the characters, what drives plot, you have vastly different writings. So maybe it is true that there are no original plots, but there is always your original self to place into them.

I am somewhat terrified of being forgotten. Maybe not now, or in ten or fifty years. But someday, after I'm dead, when no one on this planet has ever seen my face, known my laugh, or smiled with me. No one has ever heard my stories, and no one knows my life. I am afraid that this jumble experiences, my life, will be forgotten. Everything that I have experienced will be for nothing. This isn't an argument of the existence of a God, this is the fundamental idea that without the presence of yourself, your soul, your ideas, your human body, you will no longer be remembered. But obviously, this doesn't happen to everyone. Those who record their stories, their ideas, are forever in the folds of the collective knowledge of life. For example, J.D. Salinger, may he rest in peace, will always be known for "The Catcher in the Rye" (coincidentally one of my favorite books). No amount of time will ever diminish the success of his writing, nor how his words and characters touched the lives and hearts of his readers, and of a nation.


I guess I write to be remembered, for people to know a side of myself they will never see. That even if I am dead and gone, a piece of my soul lingers on, hoping to inspire others.