Why I Write

There is no one or even simple response to “Why I Write.” The idea to write such a blog came about when an essay “Why I Write” by George Orwell came up in my newsfeed. I have yet to read the essay because I didn’t want my brief response to be influenced by his.

I write as a way to record my ideas. To see them in front of me. To organize and clarify and play with my ideas, too. To practice thinking. As bell hooks and others say, when something is written down it, it is preserved in a special kind of way. In this way, writing is therapeutic, metacognitive, and academic.

I also write as a way to share what I know and think with others. To engage in public scholarship. To teach outside of the classroom. And to learn from others.

I write to join conversations that are thousands of years old.

I write to engage in activism. Sometimes very short, concise comments; sometimes long descriptions.

I write to improve my communication skills, oral and written. To continually learn what approach works to generate conversation, change, and communication.

I write to plan what I need to do, what I want to say.

I write to have documentation of my own personal journey as a person, a thinker, a writer.

I write because writing is fun; under appreciated in ways and yet if we consider the en masse popularity of texting, tweeting, and facebooking, people write all the time; writing is deeply part of the human tradition, part of what makes us human; and I write to not abuse or miss the privilege of living in a time and place where I can write. 

I write to live. To breathe. To learn. To live.