WHY DO I WRITE?

                                                              
                        WHY DO I WRITE?

          I guess this is a question that authors ask themselves a lot. As I mature I have found myself wondering the same thing. Growing up I always loved to read. Nancy Drew and Sweet Valley High were my series of choice as a youngster. I always did well in English in school and even received top honors in my 8th grade English class. I don’t think it was until about tenth grade when I got a perfect score on the writing part of the FCAT that I started to consider that I might have a gift. It was around that time that the voices started.

          No, I don’t mean I was having a mental breakdown. I mean that I started to hear stories in my head as if the character was speaking to me. I ignored the voices. After all I had to finish high school, do the college thing and continue on my way to my ultimate goal…law school. So for years I ignored the voices, shushing them with noise of the world of responsibility.

           It was only when I entered law school that the voices decided they’d had enough. I was soon waking up in the middle of the night with ideas for a novel that I would have to frantically scribble down so I wouldn’t forget. This seemed to never stop. It got to the point that I would be in class and an idea for a scene would come to me and I would start to write. By this time I didn’t have to rush. The words were in my head and I knew what to write as soon as my pen touched the paper.

           Years later I have realized that I have no desire to be a lawyer. I want to write. I want to write for a living. I want to write because it makes me happy. I want to write because the voices are telling me I must. I have recently completed my first novel, a modern day Greek mythology romance Goddess of Legend. There are journals lying around my home for the next 27 novels that the voices have told me to write.

          Some might say that I am wasting my time. The world of publication is hard to get into. I know that but I believe I have a gift. The voices continue to speak for a reason and I have no choice but to listen to them. So when people ask why do you write, I can honestly say it’s because the voices will not let me do anything else.