I write a lot each and every day. I’m not sure how many words I write in one day, but sometimes, it feels like loads.
I’m sure I often log thousands of words each day between my blog and my books. It is noted and tracked in both of the applications I use: Evernote and Scrivener.
If I cared enough to find out, I could go and add them up. But that part isn’t really important. The how many.
If you’ve ever seen The Shining with Jack Nicholson. “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” For hundreds and hundreds of pages.
So there. The “how many” is neither here nor there. What is important is the content. Did those words mean anything to anyone? If they did not, it seems like a waste of everyone’s time, energy, and words.
But I suppose, if those words mean something to at least one someone, then it was worth it all.
Then, this thought sparked so many more thoughts within me. Would I be writing so much if no one read it? Is that why I write? Why do we create? Do painters paint just to do it, or do they want someone else to see the canvas? Same with everything. Do singers sing just to sing? Do ballet dancers spend hundreds of repetitive hours perfecting their ballet just because they like to dance? Or do they do this to be seen by an audience?
In many cases in my life, I do things simply for the fact that I love to do them. I played softball, not to be watched. But to play the game. Or singing in the kitchen as I wash dishes. I do it because I want to. Those three blind mice. See how they run. See how they run.
What about the creation of art, though? I suppose it can be for many reasons, like self-expression. Or as an emotional release. Perhaps the preservation of culture. But is it mostly about communication?
Yet. I say there is something different about writing. Stories were meant to be told to someone else. We use words to communicate with others. We don’t need them to communicate with ourselves. Our thoughts are our thoughts, and they occur without expression. But to tell our stories and share our thoughts, we need an audience.
I wonder what other people think about this. Maybe I’ll write a blog and ask this very question.
Why do we create?
Is writing a different beast?
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“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” – Thomas Merton
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“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” – Pablo Picasso
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“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.” – Henry Ward Beecher
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“Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.” – Twyla Tharp
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“The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something that wasn’t there before.” – Neil Gaiman
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“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” – Edgar Degas
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“The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
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Why in the world do I write?
