Tim Sevenhuysen.com My obstinate antic to make the world slightly less feeble.

Answers #1 – Why Write?

I'm going to try out a Q&A feature on my blog. For now, I'll mostly be soliciting questions via social media (see the top of the sidebar for links), but you can also email me (tsevenhuysen@gmail.com) if there's something you'd really like to know about my writing, my family, my opinions, or any other aspect of my life.

Sean Riley asked me:

Why write?

Wow. What a great, big question. Why do I write? I'm not entirely sure I know. But I'll try to give some semblance of an answer.

The Answer

Sitting back and thinking about it, I think there are three main reasons why I write. Here they are:

1) I write because I have a need to create.

Ideas pop into my head whether I'm looking for them or not, a lot of the time. I can either let them bounce around for a while until they find their way out my ear and get carried off by the wind, or I can try to put them down on paper or a screen somewhere. I have a drive to create, an urge of some sort, that pushes me to do something with my ideas.

But writing my ideas down wouldn't mean a whole lot if no one read them, which is why I have reason 2:

2) I write because it's rewarding.

Any time someone reads a story I've written, whether they give me feedback or not, whether they even like it or not, I find it really rewarding. It's hard to pin down why. Maybe it's some sense of the reader investing their time in me or showing appreciation for the effort I put into creating that story. Maybe it's a validation of my creative urge.

Having my stories read makes me feel valued. It even allows me to feel like I'm making a difference in someone's life, whether that difference is significant or not. It's wonderfully empowering to know that your words are winding their way through someone else's brain, especially when I think of all the great experiences I've had reading things that other people have written. And that brings me to my third, and maybe most important, reason for writing, which is:

3) I write because I read.

Fiction has been one of the most influential mediums in my life. I've read fiction pretty much constantly since I was a kid. Many of my fondest memories are tied to books, or experiences related to books. I remember a kids' book about a mouse and a ripe, red strawberry, I remember the Berenstain Bears, I remember the Land of Barely There. I remember going to see a play in a local theatre based on The Hobbit, and then finding The Fellowship of the Ring in the class library in Grade 4, devouring it, and hunting forever to find the rest of the series to read. I remember getting Ender's Game for free at a book exchange during a camping trip and reading it in three-and-a-half hours with literally one single break to go to the bathroom.

I remember The Grapes of Wrath teaching me about tragedy.
I remember Gulliver's Travels teaching me about satire.
I remember The Life of Pi teaching me about metaphor.
I remember Les Miserables completely reformulating my concept of literature.

The more I read, the more I learn, and the more my life feels enriched. I only first read some of these incredibly influential books in the past couple of years, and I hope to have my life changed in many more ways by the fiction I continue to discover.

I write because I want to be a part of this process. I don't anticipate that my fiction will ever do for someone what Les Mis or Grapes of Wrath did for me, but maybe by writing I can somehow help those classics to live on, in some small way.

I hope this goes part of the way to answering your question, Sean.

And if anyone wants to get started on enriching their lives through reading, look no further than my 50 Best Books list!