Why I Write:

I write because I love language, I love words and sentences and paragraphs, and the puzzle of putting them together in the right way.

I write because opening my favorite book is like reconnecting with an old friend, and someday I hope one of my books will be the same thing for even one person.

I write for the all the stories that are within me, begging to come out.

I write because even when I’m terrible, even when I can’t write three words without thinking my brain is bleeding through my ears, and then when I do get them out, I erase it because it’s total garbage, it’s still the best thing in the world.

I write because I’m happy, I write because I’m hurting.

I write because sometimes I think I’m creating soul-singing, wonderful prose that will wrack every reader with overwhelming emotion at every page, and I also write because sometimes I think I’m only good for writing my own name and I’d have better luck trying to become a nuclear physicist.

I write because fictional characters talk to me in my head, and if I’m not a writer, then I’m just crazy.

I write because I’m crazy anyway.

I write because I love it, a way down deep kind of love that makes me excited, dizzy, angry, frustrated, close to tears, and inexplicably happy at any given day before lunch time alone.

I write because I can’t help it, it’s like a drug.

I write because when someone reads something I write and likes it, it will put me in an unshakable good mood for a week.

I write because when nobody reads anything I write, and when one person finally does and then doesn’t like it, I write anyway, though I might wish I’d been spending my time learning something useful, like Latin, or how to ride a unicycle.

I write because it’s one of the few things I’m truly ambitious about; I enjoy working to get better at it, even if it means forgoing actual schoolwork to peruse a fiction ‘how-to’ book.

I write because I don’t have to get it right the first time, which wouldn’t be the case if I was more inclined to something like brain surgery.

I write because writing is the one thing I’ll go after with everything I have—even though I’m terrified.

I write because I can express what I mean to say in a way I can’t ever manage to do with my tongue.

I write for no reason other than the sheer fun of it.

I write because deep down I’m really an egotist, and when I write, I’m expressing myself and creating myself, and when someone reads what I’ve written, they’re reading a part of me.

I write for myself, because I want to, and that’s good enough.