Why I write

In a comment on yesterday's blog entry about what was happening with my writing in 1987, Deb Franklin asked:  

Is the fiction something you feel you have to write and get out there?

 This question boils down to, why do I write? 

I answered this question at length in this post in 2008, but I can give a shorter though perhaps more inscrutable answer:  I write because I have to.  I tried giving it up, and I failed.  For as far back in my life as I can remember, I've written.  I've written mimeographed UFO magazines, fanzines, non-fiction of all sorts, stories, and books.  I'd write comic books and screenplays if anyone would pay me to do so. 

So, Deb, the even shorter answer to your question is, yes. 

Some of the reasons why I write

I write because I must, because I can't not write.

I write

because I tried once to abandon it entirely but couldn't; I couldn't even sleep that night

in a foolish attempt to get all the pain out of me

because I can't stop telling stories

to share the joy in me

because sometimes when I'm writing, I'm truly in another world

to let you feel how it was when I first fell in love

because there's little that compares with the feeling of having written

to share the rage lest it consume me

to find a way back to being human

I write because I must, because I can't not write.