What 10 things drive me to write

Since this is a time when many of us make lists of resolutions to follow in the new year, I thought it appropriate to share a different list with my readers.

What ten things drive me to write?

1. I have no choice. Writing is as important to me as food, so I must write regularly or starve to death!
2. I often don’t know what I think on a deeper level unless I write about the subject.
3. My nightly dreams leave me with no option but to recognize and record them each morning, reminding me of the multitude of stories that exist in this amazing source.
4. Life is too complex if I don’t try to make sense of it by writing poems, stories, essays, etc., that help me to understand it better.
5. Writing helps me to think I have control over some small patch of my life.
6. Language is the medium through which we perceive the world. How would I know what I’m seeing if I didn’t write about it? Or read what someone else has written?
7. Writing not only takes me deeper into the outer world but it also gives me access to my inner life in ways that otherwise wouldn’t happen.
8. To write gives me an opportunity to put my mark on the world in a small way, to leave something of myself behind.
9. Writing gives me access to my imagination in ways that otherwise wouldn’t happen.
10. While there certainly are moments of doubt and pain when I write, there also are so many satisfactions, especially when I complete a work that others can enter into and feel illuminated by.

I’d love to hear from other writers what drives them to write!