Why do I write? - Jay Eckert

Hear ye, Hear ye. All noble readers of SM Blooding and Crew. This entire post is thoroughly unplanned and fully reliant on a very weak mind  to finger connection. This is because work is just so unbelievably busy that my brain now approximates the consistency of jello with the fruit goo flobbering around inside.

So, without planning, what is it I can blog about? My feeble mind eventually answered - Why is it that I like to write? Bingo! Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

Here's some reasons I sit in front of a computer and let the creativity flow whether it wants to or not. Let me start off, however, with the premise behind why I write, which may differ from many authors.

I like to write. But, I do not NEED to. Check this. I haven't written anything apart from queries, synopses, tweets, emails or blogs in the last couple of weeks, and I don't feel like I'm about to die. Well, at least not because of that. I like to write. It's often quite fun. Now why is that, you ask? Here's some of the reasons I managed to think of at the moment.

• It fulfills some elemental part of me, in a way that video games, television, sports and reading do not. I create. When I read a novel or watch a movie that impresses the heck out of me, I have two reactions. I first and foremost enjoy the experience. Second, I say, wow, I wish I could do create as good as that. Note that I hardly ever look at some creative work and think, it's good, but it could be so much better and here is how I would do it. I'm just not competitive in that way. I'm jealous, sure, just not that competitive. 

• Once I've got the story moving, I often discover that I like my characters and want to spend some time with them each day, just to see what they'll think of next! 

• After a long day at work, and/or listening to my kids bicker, it's nice to just tune it all out and visit that world in my head. We writers are professional daydreamers, and if we did not have this outlet, we might have to control these flighty tendencies, lest we find ourselves marched off between two gentlemen in white hospital clothes.

• There isn't always something good on TV, but there's usually something good playing in the boob tube in my cranium. 

• I have met some of the most incredible people since I began writing. Writers. Readers. Editors. Agents. These folk are quite different than the folk with whom I work.... which brings me to: 

• I am an IT geek, whose been at it for over twenty years professionally. In all that time, and especially as I've gotten older, I don't really hang out with other IT geeks outside of the office. Writing and writers are such a different sort from what I see all day. It's refreshing.

• Holy crap, when you finish writing a book, there's no better feeling. 

• It's an awesome conversation starter.  

• I love bookstores and libraries, and I want to be a part of the reason they exist, beyond my role as a consumer. 

In the end, what I've written is my deal. If other people like it, cool. I'd love to be a published author. I can't begin to express how happy that would make me. But not for the money, of which there is precious little. (nyuk, nyuk). If I were published, that would validate what I've done on a whole new level. Of course, remaining unpublished doesn't invalidate my work either. When I do a good job at work, I am sometimes recognized for that and I feel just a little bit better about myself. But as a writer, you either write for yourself or you write for the world. If it's the latter, then the "atta-boy" or "atta-girl" you seek has to come from some place. Publishing is a pretty high level "atta-boy".