Reasons to write

I found my old essay, called “One day in the life of Daria.” Our English class assignment was based on the work of Solzhenitsyn’s, “One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich.” My teacher wrote: “you could write a novella one day.” Never did I think that it would happen, but fast forward 10 years and I wrote a book.

Looking back, I never really liked school writing. I liked reading, but my English class teachers were always the rigid types, who thought that great writing is about making it as far removed from the ordinary people and as incoprehensible as possible. That was the hallmark of great literature in their eyes. I guess that’s when I got the wrong idea about literary writing: I started seeing it as a snobby sort of thing with an aura of pretentiousness around it. I started thinking that the literary world is populated by snobs: the gatekeepers that sucked the artists dry, the selfappointed judges who never wrote more than a sticky note themselves, the talentless ever-fluttering social butterflies that want to be part of something special, the shameless self-promoters and the preachers-leeches who know exactly how you should write and why you shouldn’t do it. And everybody wants to stand out, and everybody is shouting. 

When you get the wrong impression of something you tend to distance yourself from it. That’s what I did. I though writing isn’t for me. I’m not that kind of person. LOL!

I judged the entire field of something based on a movie plot and some school teacher that graded me poorly when I was a teen. But that’s what we do so often – create a limiting belief in our childhood and carry it further into our adult life. The world of writing is a multi faceted one. There’s place for everyone here: amateurs, pros, enterpreneeurs, social butterflies, rebels, and true artists. A lot of it might be about profit, but a lot of it is also about freedom and self expression. There is no reason to think that you’re an outsider or that it isn’t for you. Write – stay true to yourself – not the gernre, and let the craft speak for itself!

I am a free spirit, I flout convention. So why do I write? I guess, it’s what they call “a calling.” It’s a need, a neccessity, a craving that I can’t resist. Words stream out of nothingness and take shape of a story. I write to immortalize the rich fabric of life, to inspire feelings in others, to educate, to entertain, to put a smile or bring a tear to someones eyes, to give hope or share ideas. But most of all I do it, because that’s what my heart compells me to do.