Why I Write: I Have Stories To Tell And Experiences To Share

“Draw your chair up close to the edge of the precipice and I’ll tell you a story." -Scott Fitzgerald

I am a storyteller. I have stories I need to tell and experiences I need to share. When I was a child nothing was better than listening to stories told by both my grandmothers. They would take mundane events and transform them into extraordinary eye-popping tales. They would literally give to “airy nothingness a local habitation and a name.” The process by which that which is real changes into fiction has always fascinated me. It continues to do so and is the primary reason why I write and why I started writing.

I write for the sake of the story; because I have been deeply affected by all that I read and heard in my childhood and youth-fantasy, fiction, non-fiction. I attempt to replicate that feeling in my writing. Art is beautiful. Words are beautiful too. Even when they describe despair, rage, deceit, sorrow or the loss of precious things. I can define emotions through writing and attempt to define those emotions into something definite which otherwise I believe would remain amorphous. I write because I like to create paintings with words. Consequently this is the reason why the ‘short story’ is my favourite genre. A good short story in my opinion is truly dynamic. It can at once surprise, provoke, reveal secrets as well as guard them. It is a glimpse into different worlds.

I write for the sake of the story; because I have been deeply affected by all that I read and heard in my childhood and youth.

To compress an idea into a small space, maintain its proportions and handle the build-up is both rewarding and frustrating. But I do enjoy the challenges and the possibilities. Writing is a creative process and an exciting one. It is a journey through worlds I have created with my imagination based on facts turned into fiction. When this journey ends with a completion of a story, a blog or an article, it gifts me experiences which I had never gone through before. My writing is like a roadmap. It enables me to discover facts about me that I never knew existed. Writing has helped me to see parts of life and the environment which are beautiful and interesting and I have been influenced with these little ‘slice of life moments’ and events. With my stories I try to transport young readers into a magical world, the source of which lies in these experiences. However my thoughts, words, ideas and style of writing are entirely my own and could never come from anyone else because each writer is unique.

With my stories I try to transport young readers into a magical world, the source of which lies in these experiences.

Writing has all the thrill of an adventure. One has to find the right expression for the right situation. It can be exhilarating when it happens and contrarily the accompanying despair when the creative process fails to do so can be vexing to say the least! I am undoubtedly a fervent worshiper at the altar of Gustave Flaubert’s ‘le mot juste’.

My writing is my own form of ‘magic’. ‘Magic’- that transforms the real into fiction and imbues the ‘ordinary’ with a touch of the extraordinary. I like to create parallel worlds that spring from the mind in the shape of a story and communicate it to my readers.

Finally it is once more about ‘the story’ and always has been. Writing just lets me tell it. I gather words, string a them together and tell a tale and I believe the ability to write fiction is the most unique  accomplishment of humanity.

To rephrase Hans Christian Andersen, for me, “living is not enough...one must have sunshine, freedom and a story to write.”

Picture Credit: Pixabay Free image

The views expressed are the author’s own.

Also Read: Why I Write: It Is The Most Important Thing I’ve Done For Myself