So I started with the line, "Do you mind chatting or are you focused elsewhere?" He replied in an American accent, "Of course not. I was just listening to all the accents around." There were several different accents within earshot, though I hadn't really noticed - I usually ride on Melbourne trams, and that's just Melbourne background noise.
The inevitable question came: "So what do you do?" I had avoided asking him, but as it's the mainstay of initial communication, I wasn't surprised when he asked.
"Well, I try to be a writer."
He laughed, then asked, "Why writing?"
I knew this question shouldn't stump me - come on, I've always got answers. Especially for this.
Except I didn't. Whatever it was I said, it wasn't a good answer, and it wasn't my answer. I eventually had I admit that I don't' really know WHY, just that I do, and the desire to write is inescapable for me.
I feel that I need to have a good answer for this question, because it's going to be one I ask myself. And I probably won't be asking it at those good times when writing feels right. It'll be at those other times when I'm wondering what the hell I'm doing, and have no motivation to keep at it.
So, that's what I'm working on at the moment. Answers to the question "Why Write?" I'm looking specifically for answers that go beyond the person, beyond their own simple drive to write. The bigger reasons that can spur you on when you just don't feel like it.
I'm looking at what great writers have had to say about their reasons, because it seemed like a good place to start.
So I'll leave you with this:
“You don’t write because you want to say something;
you write because you’ve
got something to say.”
~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
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