WHY DO WE WRITE

     Writing is maybe our greatest individual accomplishment. Even if the characters don't make sense to us as written. Even when the characters are not what composes the words but WHO composes the words. We write for many reasons. We write to inform, to amuse. We write to tell stories. We write to organize our thoughts, to express a need, or to remember a friend or family member. We write for catharsis. We write because we must. Even Republicans write. They are the characters who don't make sense.

     Some times we write because we have become a noun, though most of us are closer to an adverb. Sort of the Cartesian definition of writing, I write-therefore I am. But we write because it brings meaning to our lives. Sometimes it brings meaning to others. That meaning can be passed down, long after we're gone.

     What makes a writer? Who knows. The Greeks gave all artists 9 goddesses, Muses. Why some people make pictures out of words, while others make word pictures is the kind of mystery only a goddess can explain. Some Muses inspire us to assemble words and then, accompany them to music. Some Muses inspire people to take prose and change it to poetry. To write fiction, to tell stories, to memorialize a family member. We write because something ineffable within us, requires it. 

     Over time, those of us who write, and that may be a shrinking number thanks to AI, learn the necessary techniques of writing; edit, edit, and edit. Then proofread, and proofread again. The more experienced we become, the more likely we are to find mistakes even years distant. And yet our muse continues to inspire us. But usually not on our own time. Everyone talks about writers block. Sometimes they are driven to one of the many madnesses usual to creative types. If we place our creative faith in the hands of the appropriate muse, we take the pressure off.

               "Suffering from writers block?"

                "Nah, waiting for my muse to visit. Wanna toke up?"

     There is an epitaph written on Billy Wilders tombstone which says, "nobody's perfect". If any one would know, Billy Wilder, the great playwrite, would. Not to belabor this too much, but Mrs. Billy Wilder is buried in a grave next to his. The world knows very little about her, in the same way that we are unknown to much of the world. Her epitaph reads, "I'm over here Billy". Even people not known for writing can write.