Why Writing Is the Secret Ingredient - #ThinkyThursdays 10

Why Writing Is the Secret Ingredient

So I was lying in bed this morning just pondering the whole idea of writing and why on earth some of us choose to do it. Let's face it when you look at the downsides you'd think we were crazy:

• Those niggly little plot points keep us awake at night.
• Characters talk to us at the most inopportune moments.
• It's hard to turn mental images into words.
• Sometimes vocabulary just seems to vanish for no apparent reason and we turn into Forest Gump as far as expression goes.
• Fight/sex scenes are so complicated.
• Research will eat our brains if we let it.
• Sometimes just picking up a pen/ opening the document is so hard because we just can't find the energy to write.

And I could go on. All of us who are writers know we're a bit mad to have chosen to do this.

However, there is something about writing that is so wonderful we just have to keep going. We may emerge from a weekend writing binge looking like a wild person, but we feel amazing. Writing is the secret (and oft times not so secret) ingredient that makes us happy. Writing gives back.

• Creating intricate plots makes us excited.
• Our characters chat away so we are never bored.
• The challenge of translating thoughts into words helps us to grow as people and writers.
• When we're searching for that words that won't come, sometimes we find even better ones that we hadn't thought of before.
• Coming up with an exciting/beautifully erotic scene fills us with pride as we pen the last intricate move.
• We learn so many new and interesting things as we research, and we're never short of an odd fact to fill that awkward silence in a conversation.
• When we kick writer's block/writer's burnout in the bottom and turn out a thousand words we are kings and queens of our world.

I honestly have no idea what I would do if I couldn't write any more. It's a horrible thought. My imagination and putting it on paper is part of what defines me, and sharing it with others. It is a fundamental part of my nature and I have been doing it since I can remember.

Thank you to everyone who has ever read what I write and thank you to everyone who had ever written what I read.

Is writing your secret ingredient?

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