The Reason We Write

My friend, Lori, posted this quote on my Facebook page last week:

“We write to taste life twice.” ~Anais Nin, author

I think she posted the quote for two reasons:

I love quotes. Love, love, love them.
I am a writer who often wrestles with the why of writing. You know what I mean: Why do we willingly do all of this? The writing. The rewriting. The deadlines.
I think my friend read that quote and thought, “Beth will ‘get’ this.”

And I did.

But I did more than read the quote and think, “Good one.” I pondered the quote for a day or two … until it became this blog post.

Many Dream, Few Do

I’ve been around writers for a long time. I’ve met literally thousands of folks who have a desire to become published authors. Interestingly, I’ve met few who actually do. When I was new to the world of authors, I passed it off as extreme competition. After all, there are only so many books that pub houses can send to press in any budget year. Not many manuscripts will be published compared to all the writers out there creating them.

Closer investigation revealed that wasn’t the case with most writers. I discovered many of these writers never actually wrote. They didn’t go through the process of constructing a story, building a plot, sitting with butt in a chair and hammering out word count, rewriting and editing.

In short, many dream, few do.