Answering the "Why" in "Why do you write?"

A few months back I subscribed to a newsletter called "Funds For Writers" which provides amateur writers with ways to make some money off of their work. It is run by author Hope Clark, and she pays writers to write articles for the newsletter about becoming a writer. I thought I could write something  for her newsletter so I put this together and sent it off to her. She passed on it because it was "lightweight" and she was looking for more "how-to, reference, and tangible guidance pieces". I  figure since it never got published in a newsletter, I could share it with all of my readers.

Answering the “Why” in “Why do you write?”

By Alexandra Stockton

I’ve been writing since I learned my alphabet as a young child. I would just find a blank paper and make up a story that appealed to me and put it down. I never gave it the slightest bit of thought, and looking back at those stories, I’m glad I didn’t. Those stories seemed to capture my imagination it its purest form right there on the paper.

It wasn’t until I hit my teenage years that I started writing again, this time a little more self-conscious about what I was writing and more private. I never let anyone read what I wrote, mostly because I thought that other people wouldn’t really enjoy it. I remember distinctly bringing my composition book with me to a Girl Scout sleepover, so I could write before bed, and one girl, Katie asked to read what I was writing. I timidly handed over my composition book and she read it. The next morning when she had returned it to me, she said “I liked your story. I would love to read what happens next.” I was very surprised that another person liked what I had written, let alone ask for more stories. That fueled my writing just a little more. In addition to the short fiction, I branched out into poetry and screenplays.

During my sophomore year of high school I enrolled in the county community college to supplement my homeschool education. While I was there I decided to pursue a degree in English to enhance my skills as a writer. I found the creative writing classes to be challenging to me. Not only did I have to produce something, but I had to make copies for my classmates and professor to read a critique. And it was in those creative writing classes that I was introduced to this question:

“Why do you write?”

It seems like a very harmless question, but it is a very difficult one to answer. And any answer you give sounds sort of false. For me the answer came from a fictional author in one of my favorite books, The Book of the Banshee by Anne Fine.

In the book, Will Flowers is caught in a war between his teenage sister Estelle who has seemed to become a howling banshee of a person overnight and his parents. He spends the majority of the book recounting the scary situation at home and comparing it to the life of a person from a book he happened to pick up at school, which takes place during World War I. He also describes a visit to his school from Alicia Whitley, the author of his favorite series who gives him the idea to write about his life experiences. In one scene in the book, Ms. Whitley says to the students “Write for the reader in you.” Suddenly the answer seemed so obvious. I write because I love to read, and I was always running out of books to read, so writing my own story was like having the best of both worlds.

 That line stuck with me long after I read the book and has helped me answer that simple question: “Why do you write?” Now as a writer on the verge of finishing her first novel, it has become easier and easier to write. I just have to figure out what the reader in me would want to happen next. In some ways, I continually inspire myself, which makes my work so much more than words on a page. It's a life journey.