Brilliant: Why I Write

Sometimes writing is a hassle for me. There are days when the last thing I want to do is sit down at my computer and get back into the midst of either a non-fiction puzzle or a fiction alternate world. It’s hard to leave the present world and its worries to do so.

This week it is my interminable dishwasher that has not reacted well to our “natural” earth-friendly dish-washing detergent. I keep getting a fault code. It is a great appliance in that I can take it apart myself and fix it usually. So last night, I’ve got my hair dryer and I’m drying the circuit board (because the earth-friendly detergent oversuds and overflows into the electical circuits–LOVELY–causing the board to fault) and I get the top drawer to run through a cycle (we have those double-decker dish drawers) and clean a batch of dishes. I finally start the bottom drawer, but it faults out AGAIN. I swear the detergent is going to be the end of me. I’m going back to earth-enemy detergent ASAP. I’ve also called a repairman, because the only thing left is a leak and that would be really bad in our freezing weather.

The only saving grace is that all of this makes me want to write. I don’t mean a journaling type of writing. I am inspired to tackle the looming problems in my non-fiction book proposal. Gah! And I’m inspired to jump back into my fiction world and create a really good story.

I write because it represents a challenge to me and it uses my brain well. My left brain loves the day job, the emails, the paperwork, the to-do lists, but my right brain just sits there and spins its wheels. So writing lets the right brain free. It gives it a chance to soar. I trust my right brain to think up the best plots, the best characters, the best drama. It doesn’t disappoint.

I write because it uses both sides of my brain and keeps them both fit. I write because I can’t resist a good story. I write because I believe everyone has a good story to tell. There’s a great book I’ve been reading called The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By by Dan P. McAdams that talks about how we tell stories and what purposes those stories serve in our lives and in others’ lives.

Amazon.com writes, “In a book that beautifully encompasses imagination and civilization,
eminent psychologist Dan McAdams has fashioned a lively and persuasive
account of the manner in which we Americans account for our lives.
McAdams shows that our personal identity is founded on the stories we
tell about our own lives and on our shared membership in the American
community, which itself leads to a broad cultural story about enjoying
an early advantage in life, being aware of the suffering of others, and
transforming our own and others’ adversity into an ever more positive
future. The Redemptive Self is an elegant masterpiece that dramatically
integrates psychology into the realm of human affairs.”

I think it very interesting that since Augustine and St. Patrick (authors of two of the oldest autobiographical pieces in history), humans have felt called to share their own personal stories. I find that even if I’m not “sharing my own personal story” exactly in everything I write, in a way I am sharing a piece of me, because I work on writing pieces that interest me and are taken from pieces of my life.

My first published books (I was co-author) in 1998 and 1999 were a result of my grandmother dying. I missed her terribly (I still miss her terribly). When she was no longer there, I had to fill that space in my life and I used writing to do it. I wrote about everything I loved and would miss about her, her active participation in my life, her house, and her love for so many people. Those writings were the start of a book called Grandmother published by Publications International, carried in specialty stores (and Target) for several years. I did other books in the series, including Mother, Sister, Friend, even Father (Father was cancelled at the last minute), but it was the Grandmother book that was the inspiration.

Writing is a very personal thing, but also very public. You can journal and keep it to yourself, but to really touch lives, you’ve got to get it out there. It’s a tough transition to make.

But that’s why I write.

Tagged as: brilliant, real, writing