display your banner here

fossiliferous_g

Why do you write?

Rate this Entry
4 Comments
by
fossiliferous_g
, 02-15-2011 at 09:42 PM (441 Views)
I call myself an addict, and I mean that. Sure, I can go for a while without putting words to paper, but the activity - more so than the content - is cathartic. I need to write. This has caused more than one argument in my life, between me and friends, me and family, me and my husband. Arguments can come from any direction - I'm spending too long on my writing and not focusing on anything else; I'm ignoring my friends who can't understand why, I mean, it'll be there tomorrow right? I'm writing things that offend and hurt...

I write because I need to sort out all of the miscellaneous things that go on in my brain that I can't manage without getting them on to paper. I write lists of things I need to do, people who need to get Christmas presents and birthday cards. I write long letters that never get sent, I write journal entries to my son in hopes he'll understand how much I love him, I write stories that will never be published or seen by anyone but me.

But worst of all, I write down complicated problems between me and my family in my journal. Despite the fact that a diary is supposed to be personal, my husband tends to read it (If you hide it they think you're cheating on them, so it's better to leave it out and available). Yes, I write hurtful things, yes I say all the things that I'd like to say out loud but can't (or shouldn't), and none of it is meant for him to read. He says I do it to keep a record of all the wrongs between us, but that's not the purpose. For me, once I put the words on the paper, they're out of my head, and sometimes, even out of my heart, and I can move on from whatever the problem was and forget it. Forget and forgive.

Regardless of the fights that it causes, the hard feelings and desperate attempts to explain myself, I still have to do it. I put up with the fights because I love my family, I love my husband, and I love my writing. It's something that I have to do.

So why do you write? What do you deal with and how do you deal with it? what drives the passion to write in your life?
Categories
Uncategorized

Comments

  1. Mike in the West's Avatar
    Hi Foss, what an interesting well-expressed account ! A great read and thank you for posting. I'm newish to this lark of writing, but get great satisfaction from it. I think I write for three different reasons. Firstly, there's stuff to be written that I don't want others to read. personal doubts, problems, uncertainties and that sort of thing. Secondly, there's stuff that I'd quite like to share with others and if they send me feedback that is a bonus. Thirdly there are things that I feel I must tell other people about, feedback is again welcome.

    Stories that I write give me pleasure throughout the process but only if I feel they are worthy of an audience would I make them public.

    There's so much to learn when it comes to writing for others and in making one's own work public does yield constructive feedback, hopefully.

    Best wishes
    Mike
  2. InsanityStrickenWriter's Avatar
    Well, I could probably live without writing, so long as I can be creative elsewhere. I create for the fun of imagining the characters and worlds, and for a hope that someday, I may bring entertainment, inspiration, or change, to others. Trying to write novels isn't my only creative outlet though, I also try feeble attempts at game-making (including 3d modelling, programming, GIMP), screenplays, political theories, and scientific theories. I'm the creative equivalent of a jack of all trades, master of sod all.
    fossiliferous_g likes this.
  3. bookbender's Avatar
    Isn't it odd that it doesn't really seem to matter what we do in life - we are able to do almost Anything to extremes, either in our own eyes or in the eyes of others. Your situation, of course, is not one that we can really give you advice on, but I certainly understand your obsession with writing.

    For me, writing is a release - but my creativity almost always hits when I am outside, or in the car, or busy doing something else! I have taken to using a small recorder and talking into it, so that I can write things down later when I have time and quiet.

    For some of us, fossiliferous, we write because we exist, and we have to express it - the significant, the mundane, and the necessary - just to keep it from fading away...
    fossiliferous_g likes this.
  4. fossiliferous_g's Avatar
    For some of us, fossiliferous, we write because we exist, and we have to express it - the significant, the mundane, and the necessary - just to keep it from fading away...
    Oh bookbender, you spoke the words my heart feels! I've been told I'm too nostalgic, kind of a hoarder of memories, but what else is there when all is said and done?