The Longer Read: Why I Write

Re-posting an article that I published in 2022, but was written in 2021.

Re-sharing this because it tells you more about me and my writing journey (for those of you who are new), the fact that it’s a marathon and not a sprint and that you can overcome confidence issues - even if you don’t believe it at the time.

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Autumn arrived this morning. I could feel the coolness envelop my face as I stepped outside the back door. Over the weekend, we’ve had low-lying mists covering the farmer’s bare fields and hot air balloons emerging from the haze, their fire-breathing dragon noises punctuating the air long before I could see them.

As I led the dogs through the gate and down the field of stubble, I thought about why I liked to write. A few phrases sprang to mind. Because I have to was one. What else would I do? was another. I shook my head. This wasn’t enough. 

So I cast my mind back to when I first started writing. I was young, in my early twenties; youthful confidence and naivety were on my side. I started writing because my colleague showed me the manuscript of her novel. And the competitor inside of me thought if she can do it, then so can I.

I soon discovered it was a lot harder than it looked. By then, however, something had sparked inside me. Something that had been dormant since I was in primary school, when I would scribble out stories in my exercise book.

That’s why I started writing. But why did I continue?