“I lik Riting time becrs I can get my feings out. you cant kep your hot felings in sid of you you mit get sec.” Kid’s composition
I love this honest, earnest description a little kid gave of why he writes—to get his ‘hot felings” out! Why do I write—it’s a great question to ask ourselves every now and then, isn’t it? Just the simple act of doing this can help us rediscover the joy and excitement that we bring to our work when we’re most engaged, most alive on the page.
To inspire your reflection in this direction, I offer here some of the ponderings of other writers on this same subject:
“I want to live other lives. I’ve never quite believed that one chance is all I get. Writing is my way of making other chances.” Anne Tyler
“I don’t know when I shall succeed in not writing; the obsession, the compulsion date back half a century. The little finger of my right hand is somewhat bent, because when writing, the right hand supports itself like a kangaroo on its tail. Within me a tired mind
continues the…search, looking for a better word, better than better.” Colette
“the joy…is the surprise of what’s going to happen and knowing that if I just let it happen, it will happen.” Judy Blume
“But I’ll get there. I feel it in me — like a woman having a baby, all that life churning on inside of me. I feel it everyday: it moves, stretches, yawns…it’s getting ready to get born. It knows exactly what it is.” Maurice Sendak
“…it is a good thing I never took courses or read books on how to write. I say that it would have spoiled my natural style… it would have hedged me about with rules….When it came to writing, I just followed where my intuition led me.” Isaac Asimov
“When I write a line that sings itself in my own heart, I pay myself a thousand times.”
Edmond Rostand, from Cyrano de Bergerac
So, refreshed and reinspired, let’s all write on!
