Why I Do It

The unprecedented monsoon-like rains persist here, so I’ve had lots of opportunity to curl up with a book lately. My recent favorite is a gem I found at the library. Mark Edmundson’s Why Write? A Master Class on the Art of Writing and Why it Matters, is a treasure trove of philosophical musings, literary references and practical writing advice. He makes the case for writing as one of the greatest human endeavors so eloquently in this fantastic combination of essay, memoir and how-to, that were it not for his equally persuasive encouragement I might have wanted to abandon my puny efforts. Of course, one can’t read a book like this without pondering “why do I write?” Because, let’s be real: a woman of a certain age whose life most closely resembles a Saturday Night Live skit has next to nothing in common with a writing professor who has authored a dozen or so books. (Although, as Ecclesiastes would have it, nothing is new under the sun, and I’m sure most of my reasons for writing are faint echoes of the more serious and meticulously explored reasons put forth by Mr. Edmundson.) To wit:

TO EXPLORE HOW I FEEL ABOUT THINGS

Maybe because I’m what would be called a “slow processor” if we’d had as much neuropsych testing back in my day, it takes me diving in, usually pen to paper, to really get to the heart of the matter. While this is especially true for those thorny subjects one saves for their journal, I find it helps with any subject in any genre.

TO GET OFF THE MENTAL TREADMILL

We’ve all been there. Should we? Shouldn’t we? I can’t believe he/she did/said that. What if? When you tend to live in your head, you can spend hours, days, even weeks doing this. It’s taken most of my life, but I finally realized that taking a few minutes to write it down and then leave it saves huge amounts of time and energy in the long run.

TO STAY OUT OF TROUBLE

Without a purpose, or at least a productive activity to engage in, I’m a lot like our insane Chihuahua. At best, zooming maniacally up and down the length of the house. At worst, tearing up the trash or raiding the laundry hamper just to stir up some excitement.

FOR SPITE

This is related to but, in my mind, subtly different from, a very common motivator to write: revenge. Props go to the Celtic Warrior Princess for inspiration. When faced with discrimination and naysaying on the job and at school, she thought it over, then pronounced: “I am going to finish to spite them.” Love the concept. We can’t all be positively motivated all the time. I am going to write to spite them.

TO LEARN

In addition to learning how you feel about things, writing affords endless opportunities to quench a thirst for knowledge. What a perfect justification for those internet rabbit holes one tends to stumble upon. The research involved in my nonfiction writing over the years has at least partially rectified my ignorance on all manner of subjects, while finally attempting to write a novel is also providing a practical education in the craft of writing.

TO BE, OCCASIONALLY, IN FLOW

When you love words, even a relatively unproductive day at the computer (or the writing desk) can have its moments. But there is nothing like those rare, effortless stretches when your stars align and you create something awesome you didn’t know you had in you, as if by magic.

Those of you who write, why?