Journal Entry

Why I Write (Prompt #3)

I’m not sure who said this, but I will repeat it anyway: Writing is the only thing that when I’m doing it, I don’t feel like I should be doing something else. It wasn’t always this way, however.

In high school I decided to join the newspaper staff not as a writer, but as a photographer. I completed my first assignment with enthusiasm. I was going to be the next great photographer.

Apparently I wasn’t paying attention the day they taught us how to load the film in the camera, because the pictures didn’t develop. I was fired as the photographer, but I was already enrolled in the class. So I became a writer. Like many writers, I think the vocation of writing chose me.

So why do I write? A big part of it is ego. I want to seem clever. I want to be talked about. I want to be great. However, writing isn’t the only way to feed the ego. For me, any type of creativity satisfies this craving. Besides writing, I’ve tried performing in an improv group, radio, singing, dancing, acting, directing, and stand-up comedy, just to name a few.

For some reason, though, I always come back to writing. Whether it’s playwriting, screenwriting, newspaper, magazine, internet, sports writing, poetry, lyrics, short stories, blogging, corporate newsletters, or whatever. This is how I choose to create.

It’s more than ego, though. I write to entertain. Since my early childhood, I’ve been a clown. A class clown, a work clown, and now a class clown again. I’m a high school English teacher, but I often wonder if I’m truly an educator or just a low-paid stand-up comedian with summers off.

The bigger question right now in my life is why do I write plays? Why not movies? Poetry? Novels? The answer to this question is still evolving, but here’s what I’ve got so far. Plays are fun. Plays are the conversations that take place at the kids’ table, not the adults’ table—and I hate the conversations that take place at the adults’ table. Plays have a certain spur-of-the-moment, impromptu appeal that no other medium offers. “Here, put on this coat, sit on that chair, you two are fighting over that girl. Ready, go!” I love the audience, sitting in the dark, like they’re part of the performance. I love writing dialogue.

I write for more reasons than I can fill on a page. Reasons that continue to elude me. Reasons that continue to evolve as I get older, as I experience more. I hope it always remains somewhat of a mystery. That’s half the fun.