Why Write?
How asking yourself this question often can help you do it better
I’ve been writing for a living my entire working life. I did a brief stint waiting tables (something I think everyone should do at some point in their life, for all the lessons you will learn about time management, food, the treatment of service people, and how to charm your way to better tips) but other than that, all I’ve ever done is write. I feel unbelievably, wildly lucky to have had that be the case, of course — what could be better than to get to do the thing you want to do from the get-go? But it’s also given me little opportunity to pause and think about why I do it, and whether I should do it, and what it means in an existential way, since I’ve been running full steam, writing and writing and writing, since I first started supporting myself. So now and again, I force myself to take that pause and just consider what it is that I do and why I do it. I think it’s a valuable exercise for anyone who writes.
So why do I write? Start with the basics. I love making sentences that do what I want them to do. I love the carpentry of it, the cobbling together of words, the sturdy little outcomes of lining them up in a satisfying way. It’s easy to forget how important this is—just the enjoyment of making sentences—and how pleasing it can be (when it’s going well). Just reminding myself of that…
