Why Write?

I've been spending a lot of time lately examining my motivations for writing. With a chaotic work schedule and a corresponding decline in energy (old age perhaps?), I'm finding it more and more difficult to write. My current WIP (work in progress) is suffering, as well as the previously completed novel waiting to be revised and edited.

With such persistent doubts arising, the obvious question has popped up. Why? Why do I write? And if I can't come up with a decent answer, why should I keep doing it?

So, why do I write? What is my motivation? What does (or should, or might) keep me going?

I suppose the first thing that comes to mind is that I value storytelling. As an old English teacher, I remember teaching kids about the early forms of literature. The oral tradition, before paper and pen. Before printing presses. Early man told stories . And remembered them and told them over again and again.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that I place a great value on storytelling, for instruction, for entertainment, whatever. And I like telling stories. I suppose I come by it naturally. My father was a storyteller. Some saw that as a fault. He talked too much. He repeated himself. I see it as a gift. He loved to talk, to tell the old stories, to entertain. And it made him happy. When I think of him, I always picture him smiling.

So, whether you write poems, or songs, or stories, or novels, or whatever, consider it a creative gift and share your tales. The world needs storytellers.

And those other reasons? Sure, I'd love to be a rich and famous author with bestsellers on shelves at all the best bookstores. But in the meantime, having a few people, here and there, now and then, say they loved a particular book or story is about the greatest thing about writing.

And that motivates me, gives me a reason to write more. And maybe that's enough.