Why I Write

October 20th of every year is The National Day On Writing sponsored by National Council of Teachers of English [NCTE] and  encouraged by The National Writing Project:

Every October 20, NCTE celebrates the importance, joy, and evolution of writing through a tweetup, using the hashtag #WhyIWrite with events hosted by thousands of educators across the country. Visit  NCTE for resources and link to the latest hashtag conversation.

Why do you write?

Do you keep a grocery list? Scribble notes in the margin? Post in Facebook? Tweet? Write letters to friends? Leave notes for your kids in their lunchboxes?

Please let us know using the hashtag

#whyiwrite

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Why I Write

Like Isaac Asimov says, writing is “thinking through my fingers.” But I’m an introvert: I don’t share my life well in conversation. I have friends who turn everything into a story. If they’ve been to the grocery story, they’ve got three stories of events from friends they met there, plus the great buy on kalamata olives, and the spider that dropped down in front of their face as they started their car. How do they do that? And they’re interesting, and fun to listen to.

I just don’t open up. But it’s there– the stories are there —experiences that help me connect to and understand the emotions of others and their stories; experiences that add the nuances and details to the things I write about; experiences and emotions that, in my listening to others in conversation, provide the background of connectedness and conscientiousness to see and believe that we are all related, just like my Native American friends have taught me. And writing helps me think through those connections and organize and reorganize my ideas, values, and beliefs.

I write to

• think
• imagine
• clarify
• connect
• organize
• tell stories
• inspire poetry
• remember
• share
• hope
• believe the world can be better

I write to capture the muted green of the toad on the doorstep, the swallowtail butterfly on the yellow African daisy, the laughter of ninja grandchildren in the twilight coolness of a summer evening, and the soothing call of the mourning dove each evening.

I write to wonder at the world and its mysteries, and our human mysteries. [Weekly Photo Challenge]

I write to share a history of our nation lest we forget, tanka poetry [#NaPoWriMo] for capturing nature’s changes, an encouragement of the work of other educators sharing their ideas. I write, thankfully, with friends in #clmooc, #jjaproject, #tfotofri.

I write to connect the stories of mine and others.

I write to share kindnesses and hope.

I write to remember.

I write to be remembered.

I write, because Donald Murray is correct: “Writing is hard fun.”

Wall stencil in my classroom.

I write to “bring her on and let her scream.” [#NaNoWriMo]

I write because

I write to connect and learn with others as I journey through life with them– as we build a better world while we muddle through difficult times:

I think. I am. I write.

And I write to encourage others to write— and for teachers to their students: Let Them Write!

Note: A slight revision from a previous post.