#howandwhyiwrite

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How and why I write, by Lily Page

I write because it’s powerful. Writing is one of the most powerful things a human being can do, words can have huge effects on people, on civilisation, and they can be preserved for centuries, effecting people long after you’re gone. That’s one of the reasons i write, knowing that what you write could be read by someone long after you’re gone and they can immediately have an insight into what you were thinking, what you were feeling right at this second, it’s like time travel. Through writing we can be truly immortal.

I write because I have to, it helps me to realise what I’m actually thinking, by writing my thoughts and feelings down I can understand what the jumbled collection of things in my brain really mean. It brims over on to the paper and it feel like something I’m not consciously in control of, more like an impulse, like the subconscious.

I write because I love words, what they mean, how they look, the sound they make, the way 26 shapes can form so many different patterns, how they can be used to communicate. Our ability to form words is what makes us human, what makes us able to be an intelligent species, what makes us able to understand each other. I’ve loved words ever since I could read, and ever since I could read I’ve wanted to write my own words down, create stories that could transport me to my own world and allow me to create whatever I wanted, to escape from anything I needed to. Or to just savour them as individuals; how the word celestial sounds like wind chimes, the way the word freckle makes me feel warm and happy, how satisfying it is to say plug…

Even writing itself is like a spiritual experience, feeling the shapes flow from underneath your pen, the way you don’t even seem to have to think about spelling or word choice but it come straight from your brain onto the paper and you can savour the peaks, curves and valleys of each letter like it’s a dance. Writing makes me realise what I’m capable of, its the only time I’ve ever felt like I could have an effect on anything as an individual. Writing is at once a deeply personal experience and yet something that allows your thoughts and feelings and ideas and stories to be understood, communicated, interpreted by other people. It allows the shyest of people to be heard and the most tongue-tied to be understood, and i think that’s amazing, everyone should be able to have that power, and i don’t intend to waste something so magical. 

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How and why I write, by Emily Warner

I write to explain the world to myself in metaphor. It’s easier to digest reality coated in similes. I write because sometimes paper listens when no one else can. I write so I can look back-point to a line and say “this-this is how I felt” to see the complexities of emotions in words that rhythm makes everything make sense. I write because even if your world is crashing to the ground you can cave it into something awe worthy. I write so I have hope for tomorrow, so I have knowledge from the past, so I can enjoy the present. Poetry is my form of choice, as dyslexia is a cloud I can’t shift, the lack of need for sense means I can write. Unrequited love poetry is my favourite and I think this is because the best poetry is raw and when the writer is vulnerable because what they’re saying has so much truth to it. My biggest inspiration (Rudy Francisco) said “I write best when I am either falling in love or falling apart”. I write because it makes you feel like you’re not alone. Because poems say more then pictures ever can. Because I like to remember what I felt, why I felt it, and see if after with hindsight I was right. I write because when I was 13 I thought of a metaphor, I wrote it down, which lead to a poem, that metaphor made things click. I write because I like to understand, to learn and when things click it feels like a weight off my shoulders. I write because writing is never finished, you can never stop editing it, and I like that my words can mean one thing to me but something else to other yet the same words will hold so much different meaning.

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How and why I write, by Martha Uberg

To write is to escape, to be free and to forget. It is to spill that chaos of emotion packed up in your head, perhaps to share a burden with the paper, when there are secrets you want to keep.

There is nothing I love more than reading by an open window, except perhaps writing by one. The paper doesn’t judge you. You can endlessly cross out, rewrite; it won’t care. Spill what you want to spill, revel in the fact no one, no one but you will ever read the scrawl.

I find I write quick, frantically, never slow. Thoughts race through my head and I write down every one. To hell with slow and steady, editing comes later.

Writing helps me relieve the inner madness that is my mind. The engulfment of thoughts, feelings. To describe something, to write something is to appreciate its beauty, the world has so much beauty paired with pain, to write about it, is to be part of it.

Writing is freedom, it is escapism. For a moment. just a moment I’m not an clueless teen scribbling in a notebook. For a moment I’m soaring high above myself, outside looking in. For a moment I am no one. I can see and I can hear the world move around me. And to put that into words… That’s a challenge I’ll never be sick of attempting.

Yeah, I can be shit, way too much, way too pretentious, hate everything I write, or sometimes love it. We have a love hate relationship. But in the end writing is like art, you will never, ever be finished.

So don’t even try. 

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How and why I write, by Naomi Blackman

I write because I can, I can grab a pen and a piece of paper and continuously release my thoughts. I can ease and soothe my mind from all the things that I constantly contemplate on a day to day basis.Writing allows me to feel a joy of being free, everything that I cram into my head is able to be spilled out and piled onto something else, it never has to be logical or entirely true, so long it puts my head at rest. I find that writing is an easier way of having something to communicate with, although it cannot talk and express anything back to what it has received, it can absorb it and make my head feel clear of everything that is trying to be stored away. Its being able to just have something to share the burden onto. I find that the more I think without writing, the more I begin to stress out. I write because I like to visually picture how I feel as well as internally knowing how i’m feeling. I’ve always got so many different ideas in my mind I never know how to express them. This was up until recently, recently I found out that I was able to let my mind flow further and I was able to spread it onto other things. I feel like this, as sometimes there are just somethings that cannot be directly said to a specific person however, instead can only be shared in a more over viewed manor. I share a lot of thoughts with my parents and other relatives and friends, this enables me to build up a knowledge of certain things,ad expand on what i’m thinking although, in some cases sharing how i feel juts isn’t the way my mind is able to cease. I need to do more.. and so alternatively this is to write. What I write about can completely vary, some being more heartfelt than others, but what I do eventually choose completely depends as to what i’m  being surrounded with.

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How and why I write, by Megan Rayner

Why do I write? Why does anyone write for that matter? Well, that I’m not sure I can answer but I can least say why I do. I write because my brain is full of ideas on characters and stories that if I didn’t note down and write a bit about, I’d lose and forget most of them. Writing is to me the most rewarding thing, when you write something that you love and thinks amazing it is the best feeling. Through words I am able to create worlds that I couldn’t build with bricks and make characters that I couldn’t build with cells. It enables me to make characters that are similar to me fly but also it allows me to make characters that are so great whether they are good or bad.

Writing also provokes thoughts and feelings that nothing else can. Through books and words you can get lost in another world and become a character that you are nothing like. This is never the same through watching a film, as films show you what the director imagines whereas the books allow you to imagine the places and characters for our own. Writing can enable me to let others into my imagination but also allow for them to read my work and see it in another way and I love this. No one will ever read the same book in the same way as someone else.

I also write because of how simple it is to get writing. All I need to write is some sort of devise or note pad and I’m ready to create my story. This means that wherever I am, I can write. This is something that is very handy.

Additionally, I write poems and songs to act as my diary. Through poems and songs I can express my feelings without having to give away the whole meaning of what’s going on in my life. This is perfect for me because I’m not a very emotional person and I don’t like sharing too much information on certain things to everyone but through song I can without giving it all away. How I write is very simple, I have an idea and I plan the main storyline and characters and then get on to writing. I think if you plan do much it won’t feel or be as good.

Lastly, I write, and I think this is the same for most writers, because one day when I was very young, I had the desire to. Writing isn’t for everyone, I mean everyone notes things down but not everyone creates work and paints things with words. If you have the desire to write, write! And if you love it then some else is bound to. 

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How and why I write, by Twyla Brown

I write because someone once gave me a pen. I write because sometimes it’s easier than speaking, I write because it doesn’t have to make sense, I write because there’s always a subplot in my head, I write because I’m told literal homicide is not the way forward, I write because there are more worlds to discover, I write because I love taboo subjects, I write because sometimes it’s easier to give my turmoil to a helpless character of my own invention, I write because I love relationships, but I hate being in them, I write because I’m fascinated by human emotion, I write because metaphor is beautiful, I write because I know heartbreak, I write because there are no rules, I write because I love sociopaths, I write to apologise, I write to scare, I write to comfort, I write to confront, I write to express, I write because I know loss, I write because I remember, I write because I can be in control, I write because I anything is possible, I write because I don’t want to forget, I write to destroy, I write because I know pain, I write because then I won’t choke on my words, I write because then I can edit, I write because people need stories, I write because people can’t read minds, I write because it can all get intense, I write because there are better places, I write because I like words, I write because things that repulse me sometimes fascinate me, I write because I know love, I write because I love people, I write because I can hide things, I write because it’s up to me, I write because someone said ‘tell me all about it’, I write because I hate people, I write because I don’t understand, I write because if I don’t, who else will?