Writing for the Sake of the Writer

Last weekend, I made a point of just writing.  I carved out a part of my Sunday and dedicated it to simply letting a few of my characters breathe.  Unfortunately, as Sherlock would say:

And so for the next three days, I had to battle through my own characters desperate for life and the constant responsibility that most of us are faced with.  Once, long ago, I suffocated a character.  He still hasn't forgiven me, and when I find myself in such a desperate place, I can feel him back there, tantalizingly close, but never to be fully realized.  If ever a character haunted me, it would be him.

However, having learned my lesson, I know better this weekend.  I won't be trying to let a few characters out with an exam on Monday and another on Thursday.  But it isn't like the soul of a writer can stay so repressed.  Something has to give, and rather than have it be my sanity, I found a way to feel at one with a touch of myself again.  And so we come to the point of this week's title.

When I first branched out in self publishing, it was because I had won my first NaNoWriMo, and it seemed such a waste of the opportunity to continue to let my stories sit in my bookshelf as binders and 8.5"x11" editions.  So I took the plunge.  There was never any real great drive to self publish and somehow, miraculously, become wealthy through it.  All that mattered was that I had shifted from being simply a writer into being an author, and that was enough for me.

I won't lie.  I still dream about being a well paid author, but I have to just hope that day will come when I can give a little more time to the endeavor.  For now, and just for me, I will continue to write as the stories come and the time allows.  But for the sake of my sanity, I found an outlet that should last me until the exams are over.  I've been writing and completing full stories for nearly a decade.  One memorable year, I wrote four novels.  I have a pletheora and for now, with not thought to any profit in the future, I will turn a few stories into books.  The only purpose is for me, and me alone.  And that, fellow writers and readers, is what should be our driving force.  If we cannot love what we write, why write at all?