W is for Write

WHY I WRITE

“I write to make peace with the things I cannot control. 
I write to create red in a world that often appears black and white. 
I write to discover. I write to uncover. I write to meet my ghosts."

-Terry Tempest Williams 

I write because I cannot not write. These words have been said many times before, and will be said many times again, but that does not make them untrue. But actually, that’s a lie. There are weeks of my life—and in the darkest moments, months—during which I do not write. During which I cannot write. I do not write, and I suffer. I suffer, and all would be better if I wrote, and yet I do not.

But when I write, I write because, next to reading, it is one of my favorite things in the world.

I write to make peace with the past. I write to exorcise my demons.

I write because it makes time blur. I write because it makes time freeze still. I write because it makes time disappear. I write because it returns me to times, places, and people that no longer exist. I write because it takes me to locations I can never visit in reality.

I write because it reveals a me that no longer exists. I write because it foreshadows a me that one day might be.

I write because words are beautiful: epiphany, ethereal, gossamer, luminescence, mellifluous, serendipity, sparkling, solitude, sonder, vellichor, not guilty.

Whatever you want. Yes. I love you.

I write because words are frightening: stalker, rapist, massacre, Ebola, regret, nyctophobia, dementia, sepulchral, surgery, tumor, inoperable, malignant, coma, terminal.

You should have locked the doors. Did you check the children? I’m sorry, we couldn’t save him. I hate you, I don’t love you. I’ve met someone else. I love you.

I write because words are powerful: Victory, eternity, courage, sacrifice, strength, equality, democracy, freedom, peace.

We shall overcome. You must be the change you wish to see in the world. In seeking happiness for others, you find it for yourself. How can I help? I’m always here for you. Thank you. I love you. 

I write because I fear that if I do not, the unwritten words might stab me from the inside, the shards of frozen imagination cutting their way out of my head, heart and soul.

I write because if I do not, I will forget, and not remember what I’ve lost. I can no longer recall many things about my grandmother, even though I knew her for 33 years. The exact tone of her voice, the glint in her eye, the lilt in her laugh. With every day, lost loved ones and places grow fainter, even as we gather new ones. If only I’d written everything down. 

This is the mantra always flowing in my head:

Write it down, write it down, write it down. 

I write because there is nothing sadder than not writing, except that there are many things sadder than that, and yet, it seems to be true, when I’m not writing, and there is nothing I can do to convince myself otherwise. 

Why do you write?

“I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.”

-Flannery O’Connor

“Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.” 

-Gloria Steinem

“That is why I write – to try to turn sadness into longing, solitude into remembrance.” 

– Paulo Coelho

I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't, I would die. 

-Isaac Asimov

Every story I create, creates me. I write to create myself. 

-Octavia E. Butler