From Kathrine Leone Wright, author of “Why” in Brevity 28:
Sometimes thoughts don’t take linear form. Sometimes words are an explosion. They come to me in a rush of color, busting with their own force.
So an assignment to decipher the why in “why I write” from my thesis advisor couldn’t be completed in linear fashion.
The reason I write can’t be summoned in narrative form. The reason I write crosses genres. And because words amaze me, the density of poetry excites me. Calculating cost per word, tossing out cheap articles and overused flowers. That’s what I’m talking about.
And because I’m not all that great with authority, even though I did strive to be a good student. And I wasn’t a traditional student, having taken on graduate school at 39 as a “decade crises” in which I assessed what I meant to do versus what I had DONE. I thought I had already examined the linear why.
And plenty of writers have already gone there, said it best. Why I Write: Thoughts on the Craft of Fiction, by Will Blythe comprises a wonderful set of essays on the topic.
And because the best possible answer for why I write – have to – wouldn’t meet the guidelines for the assignment. And because writing is a joyous, laborious, insane process that slips away when you reach for it.
That day, I wanted to capture the explosion.
