To celebrate National Day on Writing, National Writing Project is hosting the “Why I Write” project. Cecilia and I decided to join the project by writing our own posts on the reasons we write.

The long explanation for why I write is that from the time I could read I wanted to write books, too. I wanted to make readers feel immersed in the stories I created in my head the same way I became immersed in the stories I read. I write now because the pull to write was strong within me like a pressure cooker set on the stove for too long.

For many years I did not write, did not release the pressure and that caused a backlog of interesting settings and characters who were clamoring to burst through. The many ideas, settings, plots and characters who became so tangible in my mind I could picture each scene, each conversation, each quirk so clearly, needed a place to go, to be seen, to be experienced the same way I did and they came flying through to the screen once I let them out.

It had always been a dream of mine and it has finally become a reality. Writing is a wonderful thing. It becomes even more wonderful to know that others were able to see and experience the books you wrote just as you did while writing them. Makes you want to shout out your love for the craft.

So, after all of the above, the short explanation to why I write is because I love writing. It’s a deeply seeded and long-standing love….one of those you read about in books with a dreamy Forever Ever After.