Why is writing important to you?

[Ann Gatti]

Today I was browsing the net trying to avoid folding the laundry and I stumbled upon something that made me think, why is writing important to me? I have always secretly written stories, it's been a guilty pleasure of mine that nobody knows of. Only my husband, daughters, and one of my best friends know. Even if I never got published I would still write because I just need to do it. In fact I would have never been even consider to pursue publishing if my husband and friend wouldn't have relentlessly suggest I at least try. However, I'm a hundred percent in peace with the idea that if I never get published, I at least will keep on writing for myself and my daughters. They are two great cheerleaders and an awesome audience.

[Patricia Perez]

I write because I don't know.
And also because I do know.
And because I want to create magic.

[Paula Chase Hyman]

Whenever I try to explain (to non-writers) what writing is to me, it comes off incredibly corny and dramatic artist-like. But writing isn't so much what I do as it is who I am. It's hands down the best way to express how I feel. The fact that I created a YA series and got paid for it was more like - Oh wow...this actually could be a good living...one day.

I'm compelled to write and there are days when that compulsion drives me mad because I'd love to sleep more peacefully (just go away random thoughts I'm too tired to get up and write you down); I'd love to not daydream in the middle of conversations or get majorly moody when I want to write but physically can't because life is demanding my attention. When something controls that much of your mood, it's just a part of you for good, bad or indifferent.

[lizczukas]

I think most people have some kind of creative outlet. My mom, for example, sews and crochets. Sometimes, she finds herself with itchy fingers and just starts crocheting something, even if she's not sure what it is. That's the kind of compunction I feel for writing. I just have to do it. Conveniently, I can usually wrangle my itchy fingers into a cohesive plot and get a novel out of it. When I'm not writing, I'm thinking about writing. When I'm not thinking about writing, I'm asleep. That's all there is to it.

Just like Michal, my dishes aren't getting done, and my house suffers a bit for the love of writing, but asking me to stop would be akin to asking me to stop eating. I need to do it and I love it.

[Ann Gatti]

Michal I know how you feel. I always have a little notebook in my purse or at work. Just in case a story decides to show up.

Kristan I haven't published anything in my journal, well I haven't published anything anywhere. As soon as I'm done with the four/five chapters of a WIP that I started a little while ago I'll see what I have in my notebooks that inspires me to share.

[Michal Putman]

To ask me why writing is important is similar to the question "Why do you like to breathe?"
Gee, I guess I just do, and it kind of just happens, when I sleep, when I work, when I run away screaming like mad... all the while I am breathing and thinking of the things I need to write.

There once was a time I didn't write, a time when my brain was a mushy sponge left in the sink too long with all those dirty dishes. You may call it boredom, but I had a need, an aching within that could not be satisfied until I discovered that I was a writer. That mushy sponge has become a fertile crescent, sprouting (NO, not mold!) stories and more stories so that I cannot keep up with the task of recording them.

Maybe the dishes aren't getting done, but I'm breathing clean air and holding my sanity in the folds of a notebook, one word at a time, page upon page, to create literary worlds without end. And loving every minute of it!

[Kristan Hoffman]

Ann, that's awesome! What kind of things do you write?

I think blogs are a nice way to "publish" your writing in some form and have an audience. I see you have an LJ, so maybe you can post some writing there too? (Or maybe you already do, I only looked at the first few entries for now.) Anyway, it's a way that all of us writers can expand our audience past our families even if we never get an agent or make it on the shelves at Barnes & Noble.

Why is writing important to me? In a way, I don't know, it just always has, as if it's a part of my soul. I think creative people are sort of like that -- a lot to say in some form or another (art, music, words, etc.) and a compulsion to say it.

But also, I think I'm an observant and a compassionate person, and there are a lot of things in this world that I think deserve highlighting. Also, entertainment -- I think it's a valuable thing to help people relax, to make them laugh, to excite them.

None of this is as eloquent as I'd like, haha, but I've just played Wii with my boyfriend's family for like 5 hours straight, so it's hard to see much less think... :P