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Why We Write MAG
“I write for the same reason I breathe.”
I found this written in my best friend's journal one day. It took me a while to figure out exactly what she meant.
The first thing that came to my mind when I considered why I write was, because I have to. But that wasn't exactly a pleasant idea. I write the beautiful things I write because I have to? That didn't make sense.
I don't write because I have to. I write because I want to. But it's deeper than that.
I write because otherwise I would scream. Because if I didn't have a pen in my hand, my feelings would circle my mind until they clawed their hurtful essence into the walls of my brain for good. If I didn't write, I would be more confused than a penguin at the North Pole. I write because I would go homicidal if I didn't vent somehow. My friends have too many burdens already; it would be selfish to rage at them about my life.
When I write, I can crumple the paper up and maybe even burn it. Even though that doesn't always get rid of my negative feelings, it simulates action. And having that feeling lets me live my days happier.
So, I don't really write because I have to. I write because I need to? That still isn't right.
So I looked at it again. I examined the intricacies of words and how they are just sounds woven together to make other sounds in a way that moves us. Every slip of a syllable, every twist of a vowel explodes emotions that can't be achieved any other way. With every synonym and every adverb, our senses tingle and warm up.
I guess I've arrived at an idea. An idea why Shakespeare immersed us in love, and why Margaret Mitchell takes us back to a place we know as our own country but feels like a different world. A reason why Emily Dickinson wove her words with gentle purpose, and why Emily Brontë wrote us a chilling love story.
I write to connect. I write because I know that if I write about my feelings and who I am, somewhere across the world, someone else will read it and it will mean something to them. I write to make myself known to someone else.
And maybe that's why the classics become classics. They strike a chord with millions of people all at once and make a permanent mark in literary history for being timeless.
I hope that some day I can have even my tiniest thoughts and feelings understood and even recognized.
So, yes, I write for the same reason I breathe.
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This article has 16 comments.
You are an inpirational writer
Keep up the good work!
You seem like a really good writer, so I hope you can write about a wide variety of topics. Unfortunately, too many teens write about how much they love writing, and that's the only think they write about!
But good post.
But that's not why I breathe. I breathe so that I can form ATP by...I can explain the biology if you really want. But. Perhaps better wording would be that breathing allows her to do the same thing that writing does? Doesn't sound as poetic, but makes more sense.
P.S. Frankie M., I'm sorry if I'm way off with my interrpruptation, but that's just what I thought when reading your article. That's why I write, anyway.
Great article by the way :)
I understand your point, but I'm a bit confused about the connection to breathing. At the end you come to the conclusion that you write to connect with people. Is this the reason you breathe? To connect with people? Perhaps you need to make it more clear that this connection is vital to you, as is breathing.
Immediately the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower came to mind when I read this piece (it's the fourth best book I've read and if you haven't read it, you should). I searched the internet far and wide for some applicable quotes to explain my point and I came across a few. I hope that you've read it so that this will make more sense to you. I'm not sure of the best way to present the quotes, so I will do it the worst way:
"...And in that moment, I swear we were infinite."
"I have decided that maybe I want to write when I grow up. I just don't know what I would write."
"I hope it's the kind of second side that he can listen to whenever he drives alone and feel like he belongs to something whenever he's sad. I hope it can be that for him."
"I have to stop writing now because I am too sad."
"Sometimes, I look outside and I think that a lot of other people have seen this snow before. Just like I think that a lot of other people have read those books before. And listened to those songs. I wonder how they feel tonight."
The protagonist in this story writes, like you, because he has to. He feels like an outcast and so he has this desire to eliminate that feeling for anyone else. Perhaps this is like you, too? I do not know. You feel disconnected, so you feel the need to connect people with you and with others? Perhaps.
Interesting title. I hadn't noticed it at first. Why WE Write. You and your best friend? You and all the other writers in the world? I like that it's ambiguous.
I like the penguin humor. I love the eighth paragraph's "...in a way that moves us." Beautiful.
I really, really like this piece. If I didn't I would not have said all of this. If you have not, read The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Actually, if you read that you must read The Catcher in the Rye first. They are similar books and The Catcher in the Rye is only good before Perks. They have similar themes, but I think that Perks applies more. So. Great job. Keep writing and keep sharing because, look, your hopes have already come true.
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Favorite Quote:
"Girls are so queer you never know what they mean. They say No when they mean Yes, and drive a man out of his wits for the fun of it." "Violence is never the answer! It is a question, and the answer is yes."