From a Writer's Perspective

Now that I've made it public knowledge that I love to write (yes, it used to be my dirty little secret!), I get this question at least once a day: "Why do you write?" It's a loaded question, and I pity the fool who asks it of me. In all seriousness, though, it is truly a deep question that cannot be answered in passing. I'm nearly certain it is a question to which the answer can only be understood by other writers, but I'm going to attempt to answer it anyway . . . er, I mean, I'm going to attempt to let one of the world's most famous authors answer it for me.

If you're reading this blog (or any blog about writing), it is a certainty that you have, at some point in time, read Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. If not, I strongly recommend you drop all of your other "to read" lists and get to it. If indeed you have read this fantastic classic of modern American literature...

The quote is by the book's character, Atticus (a widowed father), who says,

"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."

So, my answer, borrowed from Atticus, is that I (and other authors, I presume) write because it is the most courageous thing I know how to do. I write because it is a testimony to the masses that we must try, against all odds, to see that which gives us passion through to the bitter end.

Writing (at least publishing) is a losing battle - most of the time. To write a work of art that others find worth reading is a rare win - but it is not an impossible task. As a writer, I know I am "licked" before I begin, but I "begin anyway" and I "see it through no matter what." Why? Because I have to. There is a force much stronger than myself that pushes me to write and to fight the battle to finish. There is something so tempting about the possibility of "sometimes" winning that it is more painful to not write than to write.

Why do I write? Why does anyone follow their passion when they know that winning is a long shot? Why? Because I have courage, darn it! I write because it is the most courageous thing I know how to do...