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SECOND PLACE
Why Write?
By Fred Venturini
Patoka, Illinois
Why? It’s the ultimate question.
Atone timeor another, an author is going to ask themselves
why they write. It’s advantageous, andoften fun
to revisit exactly what it is that writing does to
us that make it so appealing, notonly with the actual
composition, but the excellent “side effects” that
drip intoour social interaction. My favorites:
o Having someone ask you how a word is pronounced.
o Having someone ask for help because “they can’t
thinkof the right word” even though it’s
righton the tipof their tongue.
o That feeling after reading a bookor watching a movie
so excellent, you’re jealous you didn’t
thinkof it first—why is this great? Because you
immediately start writing THAT NIGHT, so sureof yourself,
so excited, so inspired.
o Being able to say that writing isoneof your hobbies—much
like acting, everyone wants to do it but never tries
it. I love being able to say I write and back it up
with actual writing!
o Having someone ask you what a word means.
o Seeing your name in print—whether it is as
a winnerof a contest, a published author,or evenon
a rejection slip. You just feel important!
o Having your constant reader get really excited about
something you composed, increasing your excitement.
o The lookon a girl (or guy’s) face after that
special poem is shared.
o Having someone ask you how a word is spelled, especially
at work.
o Finishing up that big project and having that smoke,
drink, sandwich,orother personal reward that is never
quite as good as the feelingof finishing itself.
o Begin typing at nine. Finish typing at 3 am. Feels
like ten minutes passed—the feeling that you
are divine and capableof time travel shocks you.
o Composing the perfect sentence, sitting back, and
for that split second, you feel like a truly great
writer before you start beating yourself up again.
o Seeing page after glorious pageof a manuscript swell.
o The satisfying feelingof time well spent.
o Having someone ask you to “look somethingover” for
them.
o Being able to sound like a genius even though you
don’t know what the hell you’re talking
about.
o People ask you to be in your book someday.
o Your teacher saves things you do in class because
they think you’ll be a famous writer.
o Getting itoutof your system—writing, especially
when vulnerableor emotional, is your best counselor,
and sometimes, produces the best piecesof prose.
o Getting itoutof your system—that great, exciting
idea that swells to a trilogy in your mind as you jot
it down.
There’s so many more. The best thing about writing
is best described by Teddy Roosevelt, because writers “at
the best knows in the end the triumphof high achievement,
and who at worst, if they fail, at least fail while
daring greatly, so that hisor her place shall never
be with those cold and timid souls who neither know
victoryor defeat.”
Writers dare greatly. Writers rarely get the success
and adoration that their talent deserves, but we get
to run in a very special race that has no finish line—the
relentless pursuitof impossible perfection. Writing
is reaching for the unreachable, and then reaching
further. Writing’s satisfaction is in its very
doing, in the very lifestyle.
That’s why hunting is hunting and not shooting,
why fishing is fishing and not catching. Writing is
writing, not sellingor winningor succeeding.
Review this list—and yourown list to remind yourselfof
this fact.
Copyright (c) 2003 for the
author, all rights reserved.
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