It's the Journey

1. It allows me to express myself in ways that I can’t in my day-to-day life.
2. It allows me to use my imagination and to be as whimsical, as dramatic, as light or as dark as I want, when the world would typically frown upon it in my day-to-day dealings.
3. I can make characters say what I wouldn’t dare say in my own conversations.
4. I can infuse my characters with feelings that I wouldn’t necessarily reveal in my day-to-day life, a process which can be very cathartic.
5. It feeds my appetite for creation.
6. I like writing because in the journey of preparing a first draft, it is just me and my thoughts. The creative process of a first draft is not a collaborative effort, which allows the artist in me to bring my vision to fruition on my own.
7. In a manner of speaking, each writing project is “my baby”. It is a joy to see what happens to each one as time goes by.
8. It allows me to put my own particular fingerprint of style and perspective on something that may have been said 1000 times before, but in my voice, it can sound completely different.
9. It enables me to be open and receptive to sources of inspiration around me.
10. Because of writing, I find myself more open to serendipitous moments.
11. Writing has helped me to appreciate the work produced by other artists.
12. When seeing another writer’s masterpiece… and they made it look so easy… it inspires me to pursue writing with even more heart and passion.
13. It forces me to continuously get my thoughts on paper.
14. It helps me process what goes on in the world around me.
15. It helps me unload when I have a lot on my mind.
16. Once ideas are parked on paper, I can move on… and come back and look at them with a fresh pair of eyes later with greater objectivity if I wish to do so, rather than letting things rattle inside my head.
17. Because writing requires a few attempts to get the words right, it has had a spillover effect on my face to face dealings. I tend to pause more before replying, hoping that the right words will come to me, rather than reacting by saying something I might regret later.
18. It gives me the freedom and the licence to dream.
19. Writing is a portable activity that can be done pretty much anywhere, anytime.
20. Writing allows me more time to decompress and to relax (as I write this from my deck, in my lawn chair, on a beautiful summer day, with a gentle breeze blowing by).
21. The tools available for catching passing thoughts are limitless.
22. Writing positive thoughts in an expression of gratitude, is one way I have found that keeps me grounded and in a more positive light, even in times of adversity.
23. Because of my writing, I sometimes feel I can observe things a little more in depth or to be curious about things more so than if I wasn’t writing.
24. Because of my writing, I am inclined to research topics that I might not normally have had any business checking out.
25. I have known for some time that writing was my calling. It is only recently that I put together the puzzle pieces to understand that my sensitive nature is part of the “package deal”.
26. My continuous quest, looking for quiet time and quiet spaces, makes sense now. It is hard to reflect and listen to the inner voice when there is a lot of external noise.
27. Once I have gotten my thoughts down on paper, I feel I can breathe better. It feels like writing helps energy flow through me rather than stay blocked within me.
28. Writing is one of those things I can keep doing for a long time, which makes me giddy with excitement.
29. I also get giddy with excitement knowing that as a writer, I don’t have to be locked into one style or one format.
30. An exciting part of writing is watching my own creative process evolve, refine and become more efficient.
31. Even though I don’t think of myself as much of a critic, writing has helped me to recognize when a story has gaps in its plot or is inconsistent in its own history.
32. The blog has taught me that no one can really predict what will be a hit with readers. Just the same, I am undeterred in my passion for writing.
33. If I make a mistake, the backspace button is there and I can rewrite something until it is perfect. In other creative disciplines, there isn’t always the easy equivalent to a backspace button.
34. Writing allows me to be my own boss in my writing universe.
35. Even as my own boss, I find that I can motivate myself and push myself to dig deeper in a topic or in an emotion.
36. If people don’t enjoy my particular style of writing, I am absolutely fine with that. I can’t think of another area of my life where I’m THAT self-confident and resilient.
37. Writing allows me to constantly be curious about the world around me.
38. My writing schedule maintains consistency in my life.
39. Writing calms me… except when my inner writer’s voice won’t shut up.
40. As I cultivate my writing skills, I find my listening skills are sharpening as well.
41. Writing makes me happy.
42. Writing something that I think turned out beautifully, makes me euphoric.
43. I count myself as incredibly lucky in having the ability to write in more than one language (but it takes practice to maintain that ability).
44. To me writing = complete freedom.
45. Even if I am having an off day as a writer and producing crap, I still feel fulfilled, doing what I enjoy most.
46. I am thrilled with the fact that people still read, despite the advances in technology that have divided people’s attention to other media.
47. I am thrilled that writers are needed for those other media as well.
48. I get great satisfaction when I notice my writing reflexes getting sharper, the right words coming more easily, and I trust my gut more.
49. The thrill of knowing that people read my work never gets old. For that I am immensely grateful.
50. The greatest gratification for me is when someone appreciates something I wrote because it connected and resonated with them.

How lucky I am to be a writer!

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Sincere thanks for reading!
Have a great day,
André