Why write? The easier question to answer is: Why read? Books are the great escape, only dreams can rival them. However, you get to select the books.
Within the pages there are endless opportunities -- to be brave or depraved, grateful, or gratuitous -- to experience anything or everything, without the fear of prosecution or persecution.
Then there is the learning.
But why write?
Writing gives the writer the opportunity to live in more than one dimension at the same time (sometimes in multiple realities). Writers, who love their work, get to live the journey and enjoy living a life where their control is absolute.
When my Beta readers are leafing through the pages -- or spinning the mouse – I love to watch their faces. But, I know everyone who has read my work. Imagine knowing that people you have never seen are able to access the world and the characters you have created? Your creation?
Imagine, at some later date, meeting people who have enjoyed it – that would be a whole different kind of life-adventure.
A little while ago, I discovered Robert Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions. It has become one of my main planning tools. (I need to know that I have considered emotion in-depth.) It is a check list I use when I am writing.
Will is, currently, somewhere turquoise – between green and blue – anxiety caused by fear and amazement.
Why write? I write because I get to experience every one of those emotions, in the words that paint pleasure or pain onto the page.
I get to experience every one of these emotions in real life too. Take a look at the "Advanced emotions to Advanced opposites" table - see what I mean?
