I write for many reasons. The only way to discover all these reasons and to show them in a clear light, would be to write about them. Do you see what I mean?

Writing is a way of creating a whole out of all the millions of scraps I find littered along the way as I live my life. These scraps, these fluttering sparkles are everywhere, marking the path I have lived. They're everywhere because you can't live anything by the book. But you can certainly create a book from your living.

Any thoughts, feelings, and notions can be brought to life, their secrets revealed, and their potentials found if only you were to take the time to explore them through writing.

The result of making whole what was once scattered, is a satisfying one. But what's even greater about writing, is that you can make whole what didn't previously exist. You can create anything.

The joy of pure creation, not just repairing and piecing together, is truly beautiful. It's the moment when a new character pops into existence with a life of their own and begins to run away with the storyline. I search for those moments when the story comes to life, and I am left jumping at ideas and running to keep up with the avalanche I've started. I love discovering something that has been hiding behind the storyline the whole time, something that I, the writer, hadn't even noticed while I'd written it.

One uplifting idea behind writing, is that you can create a new world, one that you have a certain control over, or at least an unlimited visa for. Once the place is real, you can move through the world, adding a splash of detail here, and a carefully placed window there. And the characters, though they have a certain foreign feeling to them at first, you can come to know them and their ways.

But the real wonder behind writing is that once the world is real and the characters alive, then you are no longer controlling them. You are working with them to create, with purpose, a story that can inspire the reader. And once it's been captured in words, it will always be there. That's what I love about writing. It's a creation that cannot be undone. Created and never destroyed.

That's right, the question has been asked in writing, and it will continue forever to ask every new person who reads it, in its thoughtful and pondering voice:

"Why do you write?"

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updated Jul 14 by Tasha_Noble