Why I Write

I first started writing for pleasure when I was in college. My genre was poetry. I lived on a beautiful campus with lots of streams, wildlife, etc. which inspired me. I would often write poems about the peaceful tranquility of my surroundings. Poetry also gave me an outlet for my emotions. When I experienced a crush on a young man who sat next to me in class, I wrote about the feelings I was too shy to express. When he revealed that he wasn't interested in me any more than a casual friendship, I expressed my heartbreak through my poems. Writing became work when I started my first job. I was in customer service but our department had a newspaper where I was often solicited to write articles. Somebody at work suggested that I try my hand at Technical Writing. I wrote a lot of dry manuals, and these days, I do more XML coding and graphic mock ups at my jobs than actual writing.

More recently, two of my best friends inspired me to write fiction. One asked me to proofread a draft of a novel she had been working on. Another, started a fledgeling editing and self-publishing company where she often asked for feedback on her own work and help with her business. This inspired me to write a semi-autobiographical novel about the first time I fell hard for somebody and got my heart broken. Although I seemed to have it together on the outside, I had many unresolved feelings from that past romantic encounter. I felt that by expressing those feelings, I could work them out and gain closure. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a disaster. The book was more autobiographical than fiction and several of my now former friends recognized themselves. This caused a lot off fallout and I essentially lost a core friend group that I had since high school and college. One person in particular was very outraged and she used her "reviews" to trash my character and alienate those friends who were on the fence. This experience made me disillusioned with writing outside of my job.

Since visiting this site, I have gotten back to my roots of poetry writing. I don't think I have it in me to be a novelist but the poems I have created here have brought me back to finding pleasure in my work. I am very grateful to The Prose for helping me find joy in writing once more and awakened my love for it.