Why I Write

I have often shared about my love for words and books. Today I’m pondering on why I write.

Why I Write

Some years ago I had been reading and attempting to follow Julia Cameron’s, The Artist’s Way. I had an agreement with a friend that we’d message each other about the progress we were making on it. I sincerely began my Morning Pages. And then it stopped suddenly. It wasn’t because of my usual inability to stick to a task. No, it was something else that made me stop.

The simple exercise of putting pen to paper every morning and writing without a purpose – brought to the surface a lot of unresolved issues for me. As a result I dropped the morning pages like one would a hot iron! I have since taken them up again – but that’s an entirely different story …err.. post.

The whole experience reinforced for me the power of writing – as a tool for self-expression, for healing, for challenging, for bringing change. That is precisely why I write – to express myself, to heal myself, to challenge myself and to change myself. If in the process of  reading my writing,  someone else is healed, challenged or motivated to change, that is a bonus.

“Sometimes telling the story is the thing that saves your life. Put it to the page. The page will hold it. The page will not be broken. If you try to hold it in your body, it will break you. You can be standing inside your own failure, a small sad stone in your throat, and still you are beautiful, your story is worth hearing, because you – you rare and phenomenal misfit – are the only one in the world who can tell the story the way that only you can.”

– Lidia Yuknavitch

Why do you write?