Why Write?

As I continue on this novel journey, there are times the writing becomes so difficult, each word strenuously coaxed onto the page, I find myself lamenting. Why the heck am I doing this? Is it really worth all this blood, sweat and tears?

I make a comfortable living as a nurse and it's a rewarding profession. Writer's average a couple grand a book in most cases. Let's break down the year it takes to write a novel and that comes out to pennies an hour. Ca-ching! Okay, so it ain't for the quick cash.

I'm pretty well known through our efforts on Novel Journey, so the notoriety isn't the draw. And let's face it, readers are way more interested in the book than the writer behind it.

I might say writing is a nice creative outlet, which it is but then so is music and I like that a lot too. There are many ways I express my creativity that come a lot less tediously than carving out a novel, day in and day out, shoe-horned word by shoe-horned word.

Maybe it's the prestige of being a novelist? Ha. Maybe if I had some NYT best-sellers under my belt, or a Pulitzer nomination. Heck, maybe if I had a freakin contract.

Okay, so why do I write?

Some time back a friend asked me for a recommendation on a book to read. I brought her Francine Rivers' Redeeming Love.

This part Buddhist, part who-knows-what friend of mine, described that novel as incredibly powerful. She absolutely loved it . . . and it got her thinking.

This friend revealed that she had tried to read the Bible many times and couldn't understand a word of it but sometimes she thought God might be speaking to her, like He did to Angel in Redeeming Love, but she wasn't sure.

In other words, the book ministered to her and gave me a chance to minister further. That book ministered to me too. That's what good fiction does. It gets the reader thinking, feeling, hoping.

Redeeming Love, Peace Like a River, and other very fine novels, have shown a side of Christianity that true believers know is there, but many, or perhaps most, of the world do not.

The world needs to know that Christ's family is not a bunch of high-haired, finger pointing, hypocritical kill-joys. (Not most of us anyway.) We're just people saved by grace who sin and struggle and have had bad things happen to us too and have found forgiveness, strength and hope in something so much bigger, so much more beautiful, loving and trustworthy than ourselves.

My friend reminded me of why I write. Prestige, fame, and money are fleeting, if they come at all. I write to tell the truth and the truth is so good. So, so good.

People need to know that.

I'm not saying this is the only legitimate reason to be a writer. One of my favorite books is Memoirs of a Geisha. There's a shady moral message there depending on how you look at it but it was so beautifully written and it made me understand another sort of person's heart. That's powerful stuff.

There are books that are lovely for other reasons, some just for great entertainment value.

Some writers write simply to write well, some write to pay the mortgage, some write to inspire, some seem to write to convince the world of the hopelessness of it all.

What gets me out of bed and my butt in the chair is going to be a different motivation than what does it for you. Like everyone, I've had pain in my life. My desire is to speak to other people who are hurting. I want to share the hope I have with them. That's my motivator.

Why do you write?