- Why I Write -

Writing for me has always been the way I chose to express myself.





As a young child, continuing into my teenage years, if I was upset about my day at school, had been in a fight with a friend, or even just wanted a bit of downtime I would sit, choose a colourful notebook out of my collection, grab a pen and get to work.
Hours could pass by and feel like minutes, and with each turn of a new page came new feelings, emotions and ideas that I would eagerly fill the lines with. Sometimes my thoughts would spill over quicker than my hand would allow me to write and I would have to stop and start to make bullet points just to make sure I wrote everything that was in my mind.

My favourite assignments in school were always the creative writing ones.
When we were sent home with two to three weeks to put together narratives and short stories for English class I was there at the teacher's desk with my first draft ready to be checked over the very next day.
I even remember as a seven-year-old being told by my mum that my teacher had informed her that the Christmas narrative story I had written was one of the best she had read for someone of my age, and that I had a real flare for writing.

Progressing into adulthood my love for the written word continued, to the point where I would get new ideas whenever I stepped out of my house and needed to write them down immediately, resulting in the collection of many ripped out notebook pages, pages full of bullet points on my phone's notes app for when I forgot pens and paper and about forty characters in my head who are waiting patiently for me to tell their stories to the world.

Now, at twenty-one, I feel like writing is such a big part of who I am that to try and make a go of a "nine to five" career would cripple me, destroy me, burn out my creative light. It would be like telling me to stop breathing.
One of many goals of mine is to turn writing into a full-time career, be it fiction or non-fiction.

Writing to me is so much more than stringing a few words together to make sentences.

It's about eliciting emotions, pouring your heart out and making people stop and think.

I've been told many a time that I fall into the category of "the dreamers" of the world, and while I was sceptic over the title to begin with, over the years I've come to realise: damn right I do!

In this world there is nothing more beautiful than to be a dreamer.
To let your thoughts take you on a wild ride and begin to reach for things you never thought could be possible.
In your dream world you control what happens, and in today's world it can be the nicest place to escape from the horrors of reality - not to say that your dreams can't also become the reality you live.

My dreaming has lead me to writing. Once I let my creative juices flow there's no stopping me. It is an expression of who I am on the inside and who I maybe hide from those I shelter myself from (but more on that later).

It helps give a voice to the thoughts and the feelings that have been bottled up for far too long, and allows a feeling of release like you could never imagine.

It's a part of who I am. When I write it's letting my heart and soul dance over the page. It's my love letter to myself that brings about the warmest, happiest feelings I have ever experienced.

For kids like me, who turned to reading and writing when they were in their darkest of times; it's a lifesaver, both symbolically and literally. It's therapy.

And writing never lets you down in ways that people can.

Whether I'm writing about my own life and experiences, or telling the stories of and giving a voice to the characters that live in my head, writing is me; exposed, vulnerable, passionate me.

And it's what I love the most.