Why I Write

I suppose I am procrastinating for NaNoWriMo, but I'm going to write some more about writing. 

This time I'll answer the question: Why do I write?

My reasons are very similar to Sarah Arrow's reasons for writing except I didn't keep a dictionary. I found it too boring. I was born in the 90s and encouraged to write fantastical stories. The grammar hammer didn't come down until middle school.

I love Neil Gaiman's answer: "Because I can lie beautiful true things into existence & let people escape from inside their own heads & see through other eyes."

I write because I'm a storyteller. Since I learned that being an author was a career, it's what I've done. During my time as a USGA gymnast, I would entertain my teammates with stories as we trained. I would do a tumbling pass across the floor and, as we waited for our next turn, tell them line by line of what happened next. The first stories I wrote down were The Adventures of Cherish and Tisia, stories for my younger sisters which we acted out.

I write because I am otherwise plagued by my mind. I will have the same dreams over and over. I will become different people and be consumed by their adventures, needs, and stories. I figure if I'm going to go crazy, I may as well write it down. 

I write because there are stories that need to be told. But Aja, you say, these people aren't real. These events aren't real. I suppose not. Or maybe in some alternate world they are. Multiverse.

I write because I want to know. I want to know how other people think, what they do while I'm not there, and who they value. I want to know everything and explore others' minds so I pester people with questions and "why's" and "what happened next" and listen carefully to their word choices and diction. I monitor and question their particular movements and habits. What makes them, them.

I write because I'm better at writing than speaking. I have many fears and, for a long time, my lips were held closed my an intense social anxiety.

I write because it plagues me, because I'm crazy. It's no secret that the best writers are also the craziest, depressed, alcoholic, and obsessed. Edgar Allen Poe, Tennessee Williams, JK Rowling, Ernest Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, etc.

I write because I have to. Perhaps that is the best answer.

For quotes on writing or pictures of books, visit my Pinterest Quotables or Everything Books