“Why become a writer?” The thought might have crossed your mind. “Is it really worth it?”
The reasons to start writing is many.
Ask different authors and you’ll find different answers,
Maybe you’re here earn a massive amount of money, get the fame or have millions of fans. Or maybe you want to know what the experience what is like.
For most people it’s a situation similar to standing on an edge. Your sight stretches out, creating a scene where the world drops off. You wait for a signal to jump, but no thought can’t convince yourself to do it.
It’s such a natural experience. Staring into the hungry eyes of fear, feeling how it tightens your stomach and freezes you in place.
It’s a devilish spot to be in, but it’s all fake. It’s like in the movies, the cliff looks steep, but once you jump, you fall a couple of inches before hitting a madras.
But how does it feel to take the jump and decide to turn your life inside out and make writing your primary driving force?
I’d recommend you insure your fingers and get a great keyboard because there’s no turning back once you start.
Why become a writer? Here’s my story.
A different approach to life
To say I have always been interested in stories and writing them would be the same as telling you this will be easy.
I did enjoy reading, watching and would swallow up every story or show I could as a kid, but I never thought it would result in anything.
But I somehow quickly realized that I was quite good at creating stories. I never put pen to paper before the age of 13, but I always created scenarios in my head.
Someone dropping their ice cream would somehow turn into a bomb being dropped and a kid yelling at their parent for safety rather than for a new snack.
It was always something new and it would be a different ending every hour when I returned to the scene.
It felt natural and I thought it was something everybody did until I realized they didn’t.
Talk about a disappointment, but in truth, it was mostly an embarrassed. I remember boasting about my stories and it was only as 15 set of eyes stared my way, I realized something was wrong.
The point of no return
School was one of the places where my interest in writing bloomed. I read daily during class and was always surrounded by stories. I started poetry, stories, just about everything where I could tell a story was my thing. And looking back, it might make sense with all the practice in my head during my younger years.
But why being a writer?
To be fair, I think it’s a title that just fitting.
It was the thing that made the most sense to me, but with that being said, even though I wrote a few short stories here and there, it wasn’t until 2022 I decided I wanted to go all in and give writing my all.
Why?
Because even with a natural interest in writing and creating stories, I still needed a last push to convince myself to pursuit it.
I needed one last push to convince me I was ready to put aside other things and make way for the writing and it came in 2022.
The episode that changed it all
I sat on the bus, on the way home from work. The seat was located at the back of the bus, but close enough to have a perfect view out of the window. I saw the buildings queuing up to pass us by, the ones in view and the ones in the past.
I stared at them all, but my eyes didn’t see any of them as a feeling of inadequate consumed my thoughts.
The job I worked was a great entry level job, but I missed the excitement of life.
I can’t sit here for the rest of my life, it started as a whispered, but after 3-4 buildings it had grown into a megaphone blasting the insides of my brain. I need to find an escape.
And then the think tank started.
To escape the brain takes massive work
I searched the corners of my mind.
I enjoyed writing and I knew people had praised my stories. My mind still created stories, I still need to be creative. The voice was as strong as it was when I was younger.
The volley of thoughts made the decision clear: I needed to find a way to do this. I needed a way to become a writer.
It was a moment of bliss and then the negative thought took over. The words I had heard before: “It’s impossible to become an author. You need connections and luck, don’t you think it safer to just stay at your job, it’s alright isn’t it?”
The questions weren’t really questions. They were loaded. My mind recognized them immediately, but this was the kind of backup I got.
My brain and family worked in tandem to make me stick to the safety, but I couldn’t do it. I needed a different approach to life and this was my way out.
I know it sounds like I’ve made it. Like I’m away from the 9-5 and I’m a successful author, but reality is I’m not.
I’m still working 9-5, but at this point I don’t mind it anymore. It’s secondary to writing. It’s only temporary as I write constantly: in the morning, during my breaks, when I’m back home. Anything I can do to push be closer to my goal.
And then in the moments when I don’t feel motivated I’ll remind myself why I decided to become a writer
Even now I’m writing on the blog. It’s the condiment on top meant to help you by helping myself improve and arrive at my goal faster.
I know it’ll take time, but that’s the way it is. I accept it and use it as motivation because I know if I just continue then I’ll hit the gates at some point.
An intense experience (reading Cherub)
But to say everything is because of myself would be a lie. This isn’t just about making a way for myself or getting away from the 9-5. The thing that’s motivating me the most is the idea of inspirating others.
To create a story you can delve into and get lost in.
Just like I did.
My first time
The first book, it was in 7th grade, my parents had removed every access I had to computers, friends, and sports. I don’t remember what I did, but basically, I was left alone in my room with my mind, and I decided to pick up a book: Golak, the first book in a series called “The dead land”
I went through the series faster than I probably ever had gone through any game. The creativity, characters and setting, it pulled me and within a couple of weeks I finished the 3 books.
It was a great series I have read multiple times after, but the thing I remember the most is a feeling of sadness as the main character’s story unfolded. A knot tightened in my stomach whenever something terrible happened and when the book was over, I was devasted.
I shed tears. I don’t know how, but the ending made me feel I had lost a family member.
How do you feel like this when you know the book is fiction?
The thought crossed my mind a lot back then and it still does to this day. But even with all the thinking and wondering, I can’t find an answer.
But if ‘Golak’ was the book that started it all, then Robert Muchamore’s book series ‘Cherub’ took it to a whole new level.
If ‘Golak’ is high school football, then the Cherub series is the NFL.
A fire as impressive as the olympic flame
This is the book that set the fire blaze inside of me. At first, it was because I thought it was exciting, then it was because I related and now it’s just because I can’t put the incredible story down.
I think I have followed the main character (James) through his story at least 20 times so far and I still continue to read it multiple times a year.
It’s my favorite book. And I think I read it so many times that I pretty much know the whole series by heart.
It was a massive motivation and inspiration for why I wanted to become a writer. The effect and influence it had on my life. It gave meaning to the adventure I wanted to pursuit. It comforted me when I was down and gave me a different drive.
The feelings I have felt, the feeling I feel and the intensity I have followed the series with. I want to write something like it. Something that’ll have the same impact on someone and inspire others to follow their dream.
To escape the 9-5 was my personally dream. It is the thing I want to achieve.
But to write something that has that same impact that’s what is truly the driving force behind why I wanted to do become a writer.
Now whatever reason you have for writing.
Whether it’s a creativity itch, a deep desire to tell a story or even if it’s to earn the money and the fame.
There’s no wrong answer.
If you ask yourself, “Why do I want to become a writer” and you feel a fire and a million ideas flood to your mind, then you’re on the right track.
You need only worry about having a fire inside of you that motivates you to write and keeps you going until the heavens shrine on you.
The need to be creative
I have already touched on my way of creating stories. The fact that whenever something happened, I always have to make some sort of alternative ending to the situation.
Makes me seem like some sort of freak, right?
But it’s true and it all boils down to the fact that I have this striking need to be creative. If I’m not writing stories then I’m telling stories. And if I’m not telling stories then making up stories. It’s like breathing to me.
It’s something you must do and even when you aren’t thinking about it, you’re still doing.
That’s writing for me. I do whatever I can to create or push a story forward.
“Damn that sounds sweet.”
It is, but unfortunately, it is one of my biggest weaknesses. Because I always have this need to make up a story or alter a story to make it sound better. To put it straight: I’m a bad liar.
Not bad in the way that things don’t make sense and I’m easily caught, but bad in the way that if I can find something more exciting to say, then so be it.
And it can be anything.
A lie about a trip to the supermarket, a day with friends or whatever I did over the holidays. I’m not ashamed of it, because the story of a boy nearly drowning is more interesting for people to listen to.
But my thing is to never make myself the hero. I just experience something, throw it to my brain. It would receive it, flip it and create some sort of scenario.
Part of a challenge
It was like the world kept asking me: “Where are you going to take this?”
It was like a challenge and my brain was always ready.
And I think it’s this need to create stories that has brought me here. To the point were sitting in front of my keyboard and letting words down on the paper brings me the same homely feeling as being with family and friends.
I don’t know if you have the same burning need to create stories as I do, but I think you are good either way. In my experience, every human has a need to express themselves creatively. Some write, some sing and others perform.
As a writer it’s definitely advantageous to have a fire inside, but as long as you have an impressive fire to express yourself creatively then I think just about anybody can become a writer.
It might just take a bit more work. But as long as you’re content with your reasons, then what’s another 100 hours of work?
So why do you want to become a writer?
It’s such a personal question.
There are no right or wrong answers and it all depends on what you want to achieve and what kind of fire you have burning inside of you.
Writing is not about being exposed at a young age or being a natural talent. It’s about the passion and the desire to tell the great stories.
Young or old. It doesn’t matter.
If you have a fire inside of you then you shouldn’t need to answer “Why are you a writer,” you should only worry about answering, “When do I get to write again.”
Because as long as there’s a need for great stories then there’s a need for people with a desire to tell the stories.
That’s a wrap for you today.
Until next time – Hope you have a productive and creative day.
Your writing buddy,
Jack