Friday, August 27, 2010

The Air That I Breathe

This week's topic I tried to come up with something eloquent to say, and I have been stuck that it really boils down to one simple statement.

Why do I write?
Um, because I have to.

I'd like to say more grandious things than that, but at end of a very long week (started student teaching last week, had open house last night, my daughter started school this week, and I just got off of working my job that puts food on the table while I pay for the priveledge to teach) so my brain is pretty much gone, and I am beat.

I write because, yes, sometimes the voices of my characters demand I do so. I am a VERY auditory person, so when I dream, it is in voices. I mentioned that once before I know. So I can hear dialog, and someone narrating a scene to me.

I write because some nights, I lay awake with story ideas dancing in my head, and it's either jot them down, or know that I will suffer many more sleepless nights until they finally fade away. I lost many kickin' stories because I was too exhausted to get up and write. I just laid there, hoping to drift away.

I write because I need something in my life than is mine, that no one can take from me, expect me to give up, claim in any way for themselves, or put a price on. (My family is not guilty of this, but oh so many others are).

I write because I love loosing myself in the worlds that I create. I savor those moments.

So in short, I write because I have to. I need to. There really isn't any other choice for me.

8 comments:

  1. Michelle, dear,

    You're the kind of writer that I sometimes wish I were. I don't need to write, not at the same level. Sometimes I find myself making excuses not to. And I've allowed a good many ideas to slip into obscurity because I chose a good night's sleep instead of a night at the keyboard.

    A sincere and convincing post!

    Warmly,
    Lisabet

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  2. Michelle,

    We were separated at birth.

    Great post,


    Ash

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  3. Last night I went to bed. Suddenly an issue in the story I'm working on resolved itself. I picked up one of the twenty spiral notebooks strewn about the house and wrote down all the points of this resolution.

    Today I woke up too early -- I always do. The page I wrote last night now sits on one of the stacks of such notes on my computer desk, ready to be incorporated into the story.

    In other words, yeah, I get what you're saying.

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  4. Michelle - Yep. You said it perfectly.

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  5. Lisabet - LOL Yeah, and the bags under my eyes the next day are so hot! LOL

    Seriously, sometimes I get so frustrated, because I can't write just because I want to. Coming up with ideas when my brain has turned to mush from classes just doesn't happen. I have never followed a set writing schedule either. It just comes and it goes.

    In fact, I haven't really written anything since January. I've done a little here and there, but nothing concrete. The ideas are there, but studies have completely pushed everything else aside, so that I can't get them to come to focus.

    So its nice when it happens, but when it doesn't, I really wish for anyone else's writing patterns but my own.

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  6. Ash -- We already knew that! Don't we seriously share the same birthday too? Or am I just having a moment. LOL

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  7. Craig - I actually have a notebook I keep under the bathroom sink. Often when I get up in the middle of the night, that's where I go. I don't want to more around too much and wake up too much, yet I still want to go somewhere so that I don't wake up hubby and yet I can get down my thoughts. Handwriting is always funny to read the next day though.

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