Why Write?

Every now and then, I wonder why I chose to write.

I had always wanted to write. And I have been regular at it since the middle of the pandemic. I find that writing gives me an outlet to express my thoughts, and brings me joy.

I do believe that there is an ‘inner purpose’ to whatever we do, but apart from the personal benefits mentioned, I couldn’t really find any deep purpose in my writing.

So then, Why did I choose to Write?

I consider writing a thankless profession, or in my case, a thankless hobby for the following reasons.

Photo by Andrew Ball on Unsplash

1. Writing is Hard !

It is incredibly hard to produce meaningful content, on any regular basis. I found this, the hard way. My initial goal when I started this blog, was to write at least 3 posts a day.

Three became two, and two became once a week - ‘my Sunday morning blog post’ - which was fine for a few weeks, before I started struggling again.

2. Finding people to read, is even more Hard !

Thankfully I have no goals to hit thousands of page views a month. If I had, it would have made me anxious, rather than bringing me joy, because

• Nobody has the time to spend ten minutes on your blog. They would rather spend it watching a youtube video, ten Instagram posts, or hundred tweets in the same time.
• You are competing against AI powered social media, which serves visually rich articles to the viewer, versus your blog which tells your reader what coffee you had yesterday.
• You are competing against clickbait news, which drags your viewer away, and keeps him engrossed with more clickbait suggestions.
• You have only one spouse (usually!!!). So that means, only one person whom you can pester/threaten/emotionally blackmail, to read your blog posts.

3. Writing has no Face !

I love Morgan Housel. He is my favourite writer and author. Reading his words bring me more joy than reading my words. I revisit his blog atleast once a week. I have automation setup which sends me a email every time he updates his blog. I follow him on Twitter. I have seen his picture multiple times.

Quote me his words, and I can easily identify them in sleep.

And yet, he could be sitting next to me in a flight, and I wouldn’t recognize him.

Because, writing has no face.

Which might be a good thing, or a bad thing, depending on how pretty your face looks.

4. Writing, is like running !

There are no end goals in running. You don’t stop running after you run xxx miles. You try to better yourself every day. And mostly, you do so, alone.

Similarly, there are no end goals in Writing. You just write, no matter what. That’s all there’s to it.

5. Everybody is a Writer !

Once when I was a student, my professor asked me, “What is your hobby?”

‘Photography’, I replied.

Fast came the reply, ‘Everyone with a camera mobile is a Photographer!’ 🤷🏻

I was incredibly offended then, but later I realized that is the truth. Everyone is a photographer, just that most are incredibly bad ones (Like you, says my better half).🥶

Same for a Writer.

Have a paper? Have a pen? Or a computer with a keyboard? Congratulations, Writer!!

So, every now and then, I wonder why did I chose writing? What was I preparing myself for? I could never find an answer that satisfies me, until a month ago.

It’s time for my little one to be put in a school. For the past few weeks, me and my better half have been busy scouting schools, eliminating or selecting schools based on a hundred different ridiculous parameters, which “are not really ridiculous” according to my better half.

As we started attending school interviews, and answering assessment sheets, it dawned on me.

This is the inner purpose, for the writer inside me.

This is exactly why I became a Writer !!