Why do I write?

All throughout high school I was adamant that I was going to be a successful writer when I graduated. I had an image of myself in the future sitting in my own city centre high-rise apartment typing away on a blue Apple iBook. I was sure that I was going to study writing at University, then become a successful journalist and spend my time writing features and articles. But as is the way with a lot of high school dreams, that exact one didn’t come to fruition — not in the way I had envisioned.

I didn’t get into University and instead I was accepted into a business administration course through TAFE. It wasn’t my first preference but I figured I could use it to get a job to fund further study and the high-rise living that I craved. But before I reached term 2, I dropped out. It wasn’t what I wanted to do and I didn’t want to waste my time. I wanted to write and that’s what I was going to do — or so I had planned.

Again I was faced with another roadblock to my goal. Still living at home and out of school, I had to get a job. I began working full time and got a taste for earning my own money. My writing ambitions went on hold, and life took over. I began working for insurance and in that I found a different path, a career. Time went on and still my creative writing self was hidden in the background while bigger events like, moving out, building a house, adopting fur children, getting married and moving again took precedence. I grew up, but the aspiration was still there. Throughout my busy life I had continued to write a journal and I was always reading. Whenever I read an awe-inspiring novel I would think to myself, I wish I could write like that. Then it hit me, why couldn’t I? I enrolled myself into a short writing course to see if I was still as good a writer as I thought I was in high school, and to test myself to see if I still had the passion. It turns out; the passion never really leaves if you truly have it.

So here I am after having finally completed the writing course that I had set out to do when I was in high school some 13 years ago. My ideals and life has changed dramatically, but the goal remains generally the same, I want to be a successful published writer. Though I no longer want to write just one novel, I want to write several. I long to write the types of novels that ignite and inspire others in the same way that I have been when I read.

I have achieved a lot during my two years of study, I have become published in magazines, created a writing business, written thousands and thousands of words, and read many more books to broaden and sharpen my skills. I have developed not only as a writer but as a person as well and my confidence and skills have only increased with the more practice I get.

So why do I write? I write to better myself, I write to be a better writer, I write to improve, I write because I have something to say and I want people to listen. I write because I love creating worlds and imaging characters, scenes and places.

I work. I write. I live.

I am a writer and I am proud of it.

© Sarah K. Gill 2016