Love To Write

Early in my life I learned that I love writing. I wrote stories. And I wrote sappy little poems. Here's one that I still remember, written about our daschund:

Duchess was a doggie good

Black and brown was she

We romped all over the neighborhood

And oh, what fun had we!

Tortured syntax, I know, but there were plenty of poems around back in the 60's that had similar twists, in service of getting them to rhyme.

My repertoire of writing has always been predicated on two assumptions: I can write anything I want to, and there will be an audience somewhere who will enjoy my thoughts. As I think back on it, those are both pretty breathtaking assumptions.

The assumption that I can write anything I want to has led me to write stories, poems, letters, song lyrics, skits and plays, music, journal entries, articles, children's books, a dissertation, countless academic papers, sermons, emails, policies, program proposals, recipes, Facebook updates ... and blog posts. It doesn't matter if it's a poem or academic writing, it's all creative writing to me. It all organizes thought and puts it down in ways that are my very own. If I met a new form of writing I hadn't tried, I'd try it.

The assumption that there is an audience somewhere who will enjoy my thoughts is a tougher bird, but it has stayed alive thus far, and for that I'm thankful. The reward of a responsive audience is like a motivational drug; it addicts me to writing more. This September, twenty years after my first children's book was published, a college student came up to me here on campus and told me he'd read that book as a child, and he hoped I was still writing. See? Isn't that utterly stimulating to get an author to head straight for the keyboard? Comments from readers, regardless of the venue, keep me reassured that my assumption of an audience is still valid.  And I keep writing.

I read in a book by a mentor of mine the other day that writing is one of the best ways to hear God in our lives. I have found that to be true. I have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to prayer, so writing and being forced to follow a train of thought also causes me to focus on God's impressions on my thoughts. Now you may think that's all rubbish or my mind playing tricks, but you're going to have to accept that I'm the writer here and I'm sincere in relating what I've experienced, so it is truth for me. And having said that, all I feel compelled to add what my mentor says in his book: "Try it."

Having tended to the more mushy side of writing purposes and the experience, let me just drop in on research for a moment. I am, after all, an academic in another life. Research on the benefits of writing show that writers--those who simply write about things, not necessarily published authors--have fewer consultations with physicians, greater long-term psychological health, and improved immune function. (For more, see here.) People who wrote also gained higher GPAs as students, and were re-employed faster if they had been recently riffed. Their working memory improved, their anxiety decreased, and they had fewer "depressive-related intrusive thoughts." Further research results are congruent with those I've mentioned here.

Today, November 15, is "I Love to Write Day." Not surprisingly, I have loved writing this post about loving to write! Writing is a good way to celebrate, and I hope you'll join me in celebrating, sometime today.