Why Write?

Why do you write?  Or to be more accurate, why should you write?  After all, there’s a million writers in the world, and I’m sure you tell yourself that they’re all better than you.  What’s the point?  What do you have to offer, you ask yourself.  Well, there’s only one reason to write, and there has always been only one reason to write, and it’s not for the money or the fame or the pride or hope of being heard, although all of those are important tricks we use to justify our writing… the only reason to write is that it’s your only hope.  You are alone in this world, and one day you will no longer be here, and your voice will be gone.  For those of us condemned/fated to write, expressing our voice now, in words, is the only way we can find meaning in our lives.  To sort through our experiences, to try and put into words what happened and what it means, is to connect to ourselves.  It’s not about writing for others.  We write to find ourselves. That’s why we write.  It’s a pure selfish act.  It’s agony to start, pure agony.  But it’s also   a joy to do.  Nothing else seems to make sense out of the pain of living.   It’s as if we’re another, better, person when we write.  Reread this sometime when you’ve just written something…. and you’ll know what I’m talking about.