The Simplicity of Why I Write

Why do you write? If you’ve answered with the intent to make money, you may have found by now that while the intention is an understandable one, writing is not for the faint of heart. If you’ve found otherwise, I congratulate you and hope that during the process, you are leaving many happy writers in your wake.

But seriously, why do we writers write? Even more, why do leaders lead or teachers teach? Why do we do what we do? Now I know that is a complex question, but this stems from a complex discussion I had in this past week about adding value as leaders. I came to realize that perhaps if we didn’t think about everything in such a complicated manner, maybe we might add more value.

What do I mean? I recently read this great children’s book to my son called What Do You Do With An Idea? By Kobi Yamada. Great illustrations by Mae Besom. It was such a simple yet brilliant book and I honestly get goose bumps as I finish reading it. I won’t spoil anymore as I highly recommend it, but it just gave me the realization that children look at the world so much differently than we adults do (I guess I’ve always realized this to some degree but never really thought to emulate it in my work life). They aren’t tainted by the constant bombardment of negative information that is our news and they haven’t all yet learned to be manipulative to such a great degree (I work in the world of finance).

So how does this all apply back to writing? Well, I can honestly say I write because I love to tell stories and I love to leave people with messages and puzzles to solve and worlds to discover. It really is that simple and perhaps that is why writing is truly a passion of mine. There aren’t any sort of ulterior motives. Yeah sure it would be nice to make money off of it so I could write more, but that’s simple a cherry on top. So back to my first question…why do you write? And a follow up…Is the answer simple enough for you?

Happy writing this week!

Filed under: A writer's life, Toni Kelly