Why Do I Write?

It's a simple question, isn't it? Why do I write? It both is and isn't that simple.

Of course, I would love to hit it big and become rich. Fame I can live without, but that would come with it, I think. I would love to just do this for a living, to just write, to just create things. I have an active enough mind I would never be able to get all of my stories out. Never ever. Just for instance, tonight I figured out a character for Delilah Devilshot who will make an appearance... but then I realized that he'll be a key player later on for the metaplot. His whole background just sort of popped into my head, and I think... I think people will like him. He'll be very likable.

Another idea popped into my head for The Princess of Wands, the next Villainess book about Alistair. Alistair had such an extreme reaction to Caprice mentioning Regulus that there had to be something else going on there. Bryce helped to clarify the thought for me, and suddenly... I knew his background, and it's damn interesting, adding another few dimensions to the character (in more ways than one!).

I would love to do this for a living, yet I don't think I'll ever get that successful to be able to quit my day job. It's pretty rare for an author to be able to do that, and rarer yet for an indie author to be able.

A dear friend said to me once that he thought I HAD to have a creative outlet, and I think that's true. It's not just writing. I draw too (though much less now) and paint miniatures, do modding for games, and hell, even programmed a game. Had an idea and I just had to do it. If I couldn't create something, I would want to die. It's an integral part of me, so when I say I HAVE to write, I mean it. It's an idea which won't leave me alone.

Then, here, I was looking at Mindy's review of The Prince of Cups (which is an incomplete review--it's only a temporary place holder) and smiling because of her enthusiasm for these characters I created (with help--Nosferatu was inspired by a friend's character in an MMO and Regulus by another, though both are heavily changed now, heavily heavily changed). It struck me that it made me happy knowing other people enjoyed what I wrote. It wasn't just the act of creation, which I enjoyed immensely, but also sharing it with people and having them discover something different, something which wouldn't exist if not for me. Yeah, of course, the praise is nice... but it's not the praise. It's ... I don't know how to describe it. It's giving people dreams, ideas. Something to talk about, to think about. Basically, giving them something to fangirl (or fanboy) over!

And I think that's why I want to write. Not just to create for myself, but to share it with people. I will never make the big bucks, and that's ok, so long as there are some people out there enjoying what I put out into the world.