Why write?

It would be easier not to write. I have enough to occupy me in my roles as wife, mother and Salvation Army Officer. Although my work involves some writing, I feel drawn to write outside of those responsibilities. It hasn’t always been this way. Although I enjoyed writing stories as a child, it was not until our daughter, Hannah, died in 2014 that my interest in writing was reawakened.

Writing became a helpful tool in processing my grief, as well as a means of preserving the memories I had of our daughter. Creating something lasting is one motivation to write. I didn’t want Hannah’s story to die with her, or even with me. A written record would preserve her story for the current and future generations of our family. But as I wrote Fingerprints of Grace, I experienced the joy of arranging words in pleasing patterns. An author plays with words as an artist plays with paint or a musician with chords. The most intense experience of playing with words is poetry.

I like the challenge of writing. There are many aspects of the work to consider: the choice of words, the construction of sentences, the interaction and development of characters and the overarching themes of the work. Perhaps the greatest motivation to write, though, is that stories can transform lives. I know that there are numerous books that touched my life in a powerful way. Some of those were non-fiction, but others were stories that still resonated through my mind long after I had read them.