Why Do Writers Write? A Proser tells us her take on it.
We often ask the question of those we are lucky enough to cross the paths of: “why do writers write?” Today, we hear from Proser Melanie with her reasons why she does exactly that.
The question is simple and obvious. Most writers always come across this question that they either ask themselves or others ask them. It isn’t so easy to be answered. However, it is so simple. Some people write out of the boredom or to let out their messy lives on paper. I write to express my hopes and dreams as a reality. Some people call it ambition, or even see me as a dreamer. Honestly, my desires to succeed may seem a bit abstract. I laugh at people’s faces when I tell them my goals and hopes. Lastly, I write so people can understand how I feel about life itself.
Thinking upon this question reminds me of a time where I went out to a party. It made me realize that writing is my go-to where I truly can be myself. Looking back on this moment, there were so many great people who put smiles on everyone’s faces. I knew a small handful of those who attended, but most I never have even met before. At first, I felt a little awkward and staying close to the one’s I knew the best. I felt so alone in a room filled with great people. Everyone was laughing and smiling yet something was missing. I was in the middle of the room trying to figure out something interesting to say. I have never tried so hard not to fit in, but just to make myself appealing. I felt out of place and different even though I was just as ordinary as everyone else. My words never come out clearly as I hoped they would be. However, don’t be mistaken. I am not some person who is insecure and socially awkward at parties. Rather someone who has so much to say where they cannot find it in themselves to put it in words or sentences. This only proved that writing is where I can reveal my perspective on everything without feeling pressured. My thoughts are filled with this person who is careless and adventurous. Not scared to take risks and free spirited. Yet my actions are plain and simple. Even I myself wouldn’t talk to me. Lastly, it is much easier to express myself as a person through the flow of words rather than the small talks at parties.
I simply write to proclaim my fears and the dreams that nobody seems to understand. I have been apart of a small world that consists of the same things everyday. Some would say “You are in power of what you do next” but really you are not. Some people like me cannot just get up and decide to travel the world. I mean someone can, but it takes time and effort in order to succeed to even make money for those travel expenses. However, some people are “fortunate” enough to be able to travel to different countries and experience the good food and people especially the culture. Those are the kind of people that I cannot help to be annoyed of because they take each of their experience for granted. When they talk about their travels, they make it sound like it is something everyone does. They do not talk about it like it deeply impacted them which is the part that gets me every time. I do not know how someone cannot talk about the things they saw or how they felt in those moments. While there are people like that, I am just here. I take in the moments where I’m captivative in someone else’s eyes because you never know when that feeling will ever go away. That itself encourages me not to take the small things for granted. In response to the question, writing takes away the crucial reality of loneliness. A loneliness that is deep into yourself that always feels empty like there is something missing. The only way to fill that void is to create words to make you less like a person who is just taking up space in a room. Writing gives me opportunities to make the unbelievably exist. I have control on what to say and not to say as well as what happens at the end of the story. I, myself, create illusions to give people and control how they feel throughout a story. Words can be powerful and people need to take note of that fact. Writing is not something that you can guess yourself through. It is something that takes patience and an open mind as well as an imagination.
People never realize how important a word can really be. Others scan through a poem and shrug off the words that are bold. They do not seem to notice that words need to be emphasized when they are in capitalized or even to pause when there is a dash. People often take it for granted and never truly understand the writer’s work due to this reason. This is why I feel like people do not understand authors. They tell themselves that they have to know their background and relate to their experience to know the writer’s true intentions. While that isn’t completely false, people have to literally put themselves in the author’s shoes. Knowing their background and how they felt is the first step. Next, is digging deeper and knowing the true response to why the author wrote the things they did. As a writer, I know sometimes I just capitalize a certain word not to show an illusion of something else, but just because that feels needed. It is an instinct that just occurs throughout the writing process. What is mistaken is that people have this tendency to create something that is not there or not to create anything at all. I am not sure whether which one is worse. Sometimes people just need to simply write in order to truly figure out the writer’s intentions. This is what gives people true power. And that is enough reasons why I write the way I do.
Thanks to Proser @Brianne23 for her submission. Do follow her and interact with her on prose, and follow her on Twitter where she can be found as @melaniebriann
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Originally published at blog.theprose.com on June 29, 2016.
