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Free thought | Writing
Ah, Now I Know Why I Write
It’s really quite simple
For years, I’ve been sitting here wondering why I write.
To earn money, to have a purpose, to have a job, for personal therapy, for status, ego, to purge the mind of thoughts, to save the world?
Why do this? Why sit day after day after day (and I have done) for years writing, for little or no financial gain? Why waste the energy? The time? The brain power? The earning potential from other jobs? Why introduce so much disappointment into a life when you get a rejection?
Why bother?
I’ve been asking this question for years. I’m 51 now, and while I have a ‘proper’ job, I still pound the keyboard every day.
Why do it?
What is so important that I have to get it down? Who do I think I am? Moses, delivering the ten commandments to the Israelites? Of course not. I’m just an English guy living in France in a small cottage with my wife, two cats, and 11 chickens. Life’s good.
Why ruin it by getting up on a Sunday morning and disappearing off to my ratty attic office to write? Haven’t you done this enough, Philip? Isn’t it time to stop? How about earning some money for God’s sake?

