Intrigued by the idea of receiving a daily writing prompt, I signed up at Writing101november2015.wordpress.com. Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 have duly arrived in my inbox and three days into November I have now started. Better late than never. I set a timer for 15 minutes, put pen to paper and wrote the following:-
Photo courtesy of Bing.com images
Day 1
I write because…
… since I was a small child I have talked to myself about ideas and feelings. It is not a mad ‘voices in my head’ thing, but thoughts that swirl around my brain unvoiced.
Happy in my own company, I have always been a bit of a loner, with only a handful of close friends. At the age of 8 I had imaginary friends, as I grew older I would act out little plays and as a teenager I wrote short stories.
In my 40’s I signed up at the local adult education department for GCSE adult English. I really looked forward to my once a week evening lessons and was completely absorbed with the prompts we were given by our charismatic tutor for written essays. These ranged from writing down words whilst listening to music and turning them into a story, to writing about a recent event in history. I wrote about Chernobyl from the eyes of a child, a piece I was particularly proud of. I learned how to produce the myriad of words in my head into paper and make sense to the reader.
These days I find writing is for sharing; it is cathartic and empties my busy brain as words pour out through my pen or via the keyboard.
Whilst I chatter away with friends, I am not a great conversationalist with people I don’t know and I am rubbish at making polite conversation. I do, however, write as though I am talking to one specific person – that probably sounds a bit bizarre but it’s easier when it flies in one direction. I write my blog with a view of someone special in mind and I think it makes it more personal. Twitter is great, it focuses the mind, I have to think about condensing thoughts into 140 characters and still make sense.
When it comes to expounding upon my emotions or facing confrontation, my brain doesn’t work fast enough for the correct words or argument to form vocally. I can do this exceptionally well in writing, making it easier to send an email of complaint rather than make a phone call. Maybe it is because I have time to think a bit more before committing myself.
Writing is like painting a picture. I have always loved art and the act of using words to describe something is a way of painting a picture for the reader. It is often more memorable than the spoken word.
I write because I love to write.
