Why I Like to Write

Why do you like to write?

This question popped up on a mini-interview for a e-magazine for which I write articles or stories.  The question surprised me and I wondered, why do I like to write?

I have always loved to write.  I can't remember a time when I was not making up a story, whether I was dictating it to my mom, scrawling it out in childish handwriting or writing the first pages of a story in every notebook I could find.  Writing is more or less part of me.

So, why do I enjoy writing?  Well, few people do things that they do not enjoy.  (Although if God tells us to do something, even something we don't "enjoy" or "like"...we better do it! :))  I love writing because, through an article or a blog post, I can express my opinion, share advice, or write down a funny story that happened to me.  Through fiction, I can create worlds and invent characters, and make them real.

Through a story line I attempt to weave a Biblical truth into the story.  I want to make my books worthwhile.  I don't want my stories to be something you read and put down and learn nothing from.  I want my books to be the kind where you enjoy them, put them down, and realized you learned something or in some way were changed or touched by the story.  Whether I accomplish this or not is up to God and me but if writing is my gift that I submit to Him, I believe He will use my writing in the way that He wants.  Currently I still enjoy writing fiction so I believe, at the moment, that's what He wants me to write.

The other day I saw a little journal with a quote upon it reading, "We write to taste life twice." (by Anais Nin...not really someone I'd recommend looking to for advice, but this one quote seemed okay)  That's not exactly why write, but that quote encompasses some of my reason...  Through writing I can put myself - and the reader - in places I've visited, or places no one on earth has never been to, through imagination and words.  Honestly, I adore writing, but I know it is not a gift to be used lightly.  There is a saying that the pen is stronger than the sword (or in our modern day world...the keyboard is stronger than the gun?) and in many ways I agree.

Well, this blog post is kind of sporadic.

Question Time!
Why do you like to write?  How did you become interested in writing?
Do you believe the keyboard is stronger than a gun? :)

-- Klara C.