Why Do I Write?
Why I engage in creative writing and why I am sharing my works with the world
Why write? Why this? Why now?
Why do I write? There are many reasons that can answer the question, but the shortest one is this: I find writing down my thoughts and ideas, through the various mediums available, is far easier than trying to articulate them with my mouth. It is this reason I have spent so much time writing. With it I believe I have developed some skills in the sphere of creative writing and I am confident that at least one of the works I have finished will make the world a more thoughtful and better place for future generations.
My writing journey began in the fourth grade and slowly became something of note while in high school. At first it was the classic childhood trope of becoming a rock star, and then it was the sobering reality that I sing marginally at best and have little to no musical talent. So all those lyrics I wrote were redefined as poetry and that is where my focus shifted. Over time I crafted many poems exploring various themes until I became a full-fledged adult. That is when everything shifted once again, this time to how I saw the world and the people around me.
Even as this shift took place, I found my poems were becoming less about stepping into the shoes of others and more about my own emotions, my own thoughts, my own struggles in the world. However, I had to step away from poetry altogether and refocus on my day job and my prose. I had finished a rough draft manuscript (so rough I have rewritten the whole thing at least four times by now) the last week of high school. Seven years later, it was the only thing I had completed in the prose world until I decided to use my professional skills to organize my writing hobby.
The break from poetry was the result of events in my life, events that will be obvious as time unfolds and my poetry is shared with the world, but I have come back to poetry recently. It is a love that I need space to write unless the poetry comes fleeting to my mind, but a love nonetheless. My prose works, the stuff of novels and all that, has finally become something I feel comfortable sharing with others. As I have grown in the last few years, I have found that writing my scattering thoughts and ideas can coalesce into essays and short stories, the things I was always terrible at throughout my academic years.
All of this combined has made me decide to take another leap of faith as I did in five years ago when I self-published a small book of poems called Demise. I do not know who might need to read what I have to say, but I hope they find what they need to understand that whatever they are going through, they are not alone. That they are not helpless or hopeless, that they can persevere. That they can be the change they wish to see in the world. I have been in lows I thought were impossible to reach, and highs I can no longer seem to see, but that does not mean I should not keep moving forward and living my life.
I may not be the best writer, but every writer has a story to tell, a truth to be told, an idea to share. I write because it brings me joy and a way to work through the struggles in my life. I write because I know I see things differently than the average person. I write because others may need to know they are not alone. I write because at the end of the day one truth shines bright: Everyone has something of value to bring to this world. I believe sharing what I have written is what I can bring of value. I hope you will join me on this journey of sharing what I write and I am confident that when you do, something I write will stand out and bring value to your life.
Why do it here? What’s the plan man?
I have decided that the best way a writer can share their work is by…sharing it! While I work on submitting stuff for publication by the powers that be, I know that not everything I write fits a format for publishing. I have a plethora of poetry and a backlog of thoughts, short stories, and essays that make more sense to give to the world for free in a format that is easily digestible on any screen.
I wish to build a community that loves thoughtful writing first and foremost. As this community grows, so too will the amount of content I share here. When the time is right, I will not only drop free content but I will add additional content for paying subscribers who want more. I wish that I could say everything is planned out perfectly so that I can share it with all of you, but the best laid plans will always need revised. As such, I will provide an update on how this will progress when necessary.
Okay, what does the schedule look like?
When you do join me on this journey, you will find weekly and monthly content drops for free. As I said before, when the time is right more content will come, including paid subscriber content. In addition, I am committing to a quarterly podcast (at minimum) where I read my poetry and other fun things like answering your questions about what I’ve written and reading what you have to say on the topics discussed. The bullet points below are what I’ve committed to as a minimum for 2023. If changes to content drop days will occur, I will provide a revised schedule. Please keep in mind I am in EST time zone (UTC-5).
1 weekly poetry drop on weekends (Saturday or Sunday). This will include one or two poems depending on their length as well as some context for why I wrote them, what the words means to me, and any other thoughts the words inspired as I prepared the drop. You will be able to sift through posts as these will be numbered in the following format: “Poetry: #1 title of weekly poem content”
1 monthly content drop will be released the last
Saturday orSunday of the month barring some holiday or other event. I will notify ahead of time as best I can when any altered date for the monthly content will be released. These will be numbered separately in the following format: “Free Monthly #1 title of monthly content”The quarterly podcast will be released in the last month of each quarter of the year. The exact date will be noted in a post ahead of time. These will be numbered separately and in the following format: “Title of Podcast | Written Works Podcast #1”
Any additional poems and prose content that comes in addition to the scheduled drops will be labeled as “Poetry: name of poem” if poetry and “whatever kind of content and its name”. These will not be numbered as they are not part of the core deliveries for my Substack.
Sounds good, where’s the subscribe button?
It’s at the top of the page and down at the bottom of the page and also right here:
I hope you will stick around and read what I’ve got to share! I don’t expect you to read everything, but I hope that you will!
