Why Writers Write

They say that birds gotta fly and bees gotta buzz, and I say that writers gotta write. If I could I’d do it every day all day because it is one of the things in life that gives me great pleasure, which at the core of it all is why I, or any writer does it. The way I see it, life is damn short and the goal should be to maximize pleasure in a way that corresponds with morality, ethics, and right behavior, which if done properly can bring about even more pleasure.

I came to the idea to write this particular column recently when reading an AP article, I have given up newspapers and stay current via AP and NPR, on the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. He is a French writer by the name of Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, which is a name that would make Epstein from Welcome Back Kotter go, man this dude has a long name. But this writer was awarded for his body of work, and in particular for a novel titled “Desert” that I plan to read. When asked how he felt about winning the award, his response was that “we write to be read, we write to have responses, and that is a response.” Indeed it is quite a response, and while the rest of us pedestrians don’t aspire to win major literary awards, although I can imagine some ways in which I could spend the Kronors that come with it, we do write to be read, and to get a response.

It is a natural human desire to be responded to, from the time we are born into this world we crave attention and reactions to what we do. Infants who are deprived of this become less human than they otherwise would, and we’ve all been in a room, or a crowded restaurant, shopping mall, or movie theatre when a little kid has burst out in a chorus of loud and obnoxious whining. Or the obstinate teenager who wears shocking clothing, uses foul language in public, or colors their hair in a way that defies all common sense. How about the wife who strays from her husband seeking some love and attention that he is either too lazy or emotionally dense to give her. Yes, we all want a response to what we have to say, to who we are, and of course there are some ways of getting one that are healthier and more productive than others.

So back to the main point here, why do writers write, and in particular, why do I write. I’ve broken it down into four reasons, starting with the fact that I have a lot to say. For better or worse, my mind is constantly moving, like one of those Energizer bunnies that just keeps going and going. If I don’t release every so often I’m afraid my head would explode. Unfortunately for them, my family bares the brunt of this, especially on a Saturday night after a couple of Stoli’s. So to give my poor wife and kids a break from all of my bs every once in awhile I have to take out my aggression on the keyboard.

I also love to reach out and touch people, as the old phone commercial went, but my preferred method is with the written word. If I can write something that makes someone think, or laugh, or wonder what kind of a jackass could possibly write such dribble, then I’ve made a connection. And making connections and getting responses are the most basic element of our humanity. There is no feeling quite like knowing that what I put out there had an impact on someone, that it evoked some emotion or opinion, in teaching it is referred to as the light bulb moment, when a student gets it and the light visibly goes on.

Which gets me to my next reason for writing, I love to teach and even more importantly I love to learn. I love to learn about anything and everything that I can possibly wrap my mind around, albeit that limits the universe of potential knowledge for me, but I try to expand my ability to comprehend what I can as much as I can. I’ll never understand quantum physics, the workings of what happens under the hood of my car, or the appeal of MMA, but I can appreciate art and literature, music, storytelling, history, culture, sports, relationships, politics, and much else that speaks to our human existence and condition. And I want to know more than I do, and when I find out stuff I want to share my take on what I’ve learned with the world. So I write, and write some more, and no matter how much I write the list of my columns that I want to write keeps growing longer.

Finally, I write because I have this crazy dream that one day I might actually be able to eke out a meager living doing this sort of thing. Look, my main goal in life from a professional standpoint has always been to simply make enough money to pay the bills and have a few bucks left over at the end of the day, without actually having to work for a living. I’m close as a teacher, because I love what I do to the point that it doesn’t seem like work, except for when I have to grade papers and attend meetings and adhere to state standards, as if some beaurocrat working for the department of education has clue one as to what kids should be taught in the classroom. But as a self-supporting freelance writer, I could truly accomplish my goal of doing what I love to do without having to sell my soul or pucker up to someone’s backside just to make partner or get that corner office. If I can pull that off, I will have beaten the system, the one that tells us that we have to, as John Mellencamp sang, go to work in some high rise and vacation down in the gulf of Mexico. Personally I’ll take going to write at my local coffeehouse and vacation up in the Sierras every summer.

So I write, and I hope that what I have to say can make a difference, even in the smallest of ways, and if that is the case then regardless of whether I ever get to quit my day job, at least I can look back when all is said and done and know that during my brief time in this universe I did something that was worth a damn, that I left a mark. And that, it why I write, and why I appreciate deeply anyone who takes the time to read what I write, because that makes it all that much more enjoyable.