Thursday, April 19, 2012

Why A Writer? by DL Larson

I often wonder why I chose this life as a writer. Or, did being a writer chose me? I've been at this for so long it's difficult to remember the sequences that led me to where I am today. How about you? Do you remember why you chose a writing career?

Reading has always been a great passion of mine. Even the mundane parts of reading manuals or instructions. I always found the mistakes in written words and found it aggravating that words were mispelled or used inappropriately, while other folks shrugged as if saying, "who cares? We're putting this thing together not editing a best seller." Yet I find reading my new phone instruction manual impossible to follow. And I wonder where my skill as an editor disappeared to! Then I re-evaluate the situation and I worry about the experts who wrote such a manual, appalled at their lack of writing skills.

So I pause for a moment, readjust my thinking, noting that the writer/editor/critquer called DL Larson has taken over and has the urge to fix the broken sentences to repaired. Call me a word mechanic, I can't help myself, it bugs me to see broken structure when it comes to words.

The other day I saw a toddler having a tantrum. It was nothing serious, just a little guy frustrated at not getting his way or not having the skill to express his wishes or maybe Mom was determined to get her way for once. I don't really know, but I had to smile when Mom said, "Use your words." I wanted to ask her if she was a writer.

Since I can't think of anything I'd rather be, being a writer suits me fine. I knew when I was ten years old I had a story to share. I still haven't written the story that perked my interest toward putting words to paper. Maybe someday I will accomplish that goal. It took a few more decades before I finally settled down to the business of writing as a career. There's been struggle, challenge and satisfaction, and always the urge to keep trying.

So tell us, why did you chose a writing career?

Til next time ~

DL Larson

9 comments:

Morgan Mandel said...

Loving to read has something to do with why I write. It was kind of a natural progression to see if I could go further than just find out what happened in someone else's story and make up my own.

Morgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com

Debra St. John said...

I've always loved to read, and when I fell in love with the romance genre in high school, my dream was always to write one of my own.

Don't you love it when dreams come true?!

Deb Larson said...

Deb ~ Absolutely!!!! Sounds as if the love of reading is the first test to pass on the way to becoming a writer. As a librarian I know several folks who devour a dozen books a week but never consider being a writer themselves. Something more elemental and the need to "create something" pushes us to the next step.
Thanks for sharing!
DL Larson

Margot Justes said...

Deb,
I love to read, always have but it wasn't until a few years ago that I finally listened to the voices in my head and started writing.
Margot
www.mjustes.com

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