A Not So Cleverly Written Title For a Writing Post

Why Write?

A part of me has always wondered why the craft of writing is so appealing to me. Whenever I walk through a bookstore, I realize that a majority of the novels and books there are just total nonsense that either someone has a serious passion for or they're attempting to make some money.

So this is why Borders went out of business!!!!

Attempting to write academic papers was a tough mental chore which took several rounds for me to complete. Even in my creative writing, I start off inspired by some idea or fantasy and within five minutes writer's block hits me and I don't have the patience to continue.

So, why do I turn back to writing time and again? Why did I pick a bunch of creative writing classes as my electives in college? Why do I write so many blog posts? These are all good questions that I hope to shed light on the answers to by delving into my history of writing.

Where It All Began

I am not sure really where my desire for writing came from. I struggled with wanting to read non-picture books growing up and I was not the best at any kind of writing for school work. I do remember that at some point during middle school is when I first wrote tales. I started trying to put down my imagination adventures and dreams onto paper. When I realized writing by hand was super slow (meaning that I lacked the patience to sit there for too long), I started typing on the computer. That's when my joy for creative writing really took off and I began developing stories.

The first stories were nothing too special. I really enjoyed fantasy stories where I put myself as the main hero fighting evil. These early stories really lacked originality because I pretty much based them on stories I was familiar with.

For example, the Harry Potter book series

We all know I would've been a better Harry than Daniel Radcliffe. Right?...

Or the cartoons I was watching like Dragon Ball Z

If only so I could pretend I could actually do the Kamehameha wave.

Over time as I was writing, my family had to trash a couple of old computer hard drives which contained these early story ideas. It's probably for the best because I would be embarrassed by the tone of the writing or the cheesiness of the idea (although a part of me would enjoy having those stories today and editing them).

Escapism

Even as I got older and my story ideas got slightly more original, I realize now that my story writing then was a form of escapism. I could escape my struggles with schoolwork, classmates, and dating issues by writing stories where everything worked out for me. Where I could be the secret hero that gets his dream girl and everything works out for me, the hero.

The odd thing was that often times my escapism brought me to apocalyptic scenarios, where zombies would break loose or aliens would invade. I think it stemmed from my feeling then that the only way I could date a girl way out of my league would be if the zombie apocalypse happened.

Kinda like how Jesse Eisenburg managed to win over Emma Stone in Zombieland

Just think about how weird that is for a second. Here I am, locking myself up in my room and spending my free time imagining stories about the end of the world where I could get my dream girl AND save the day without really having to do anything physical. That was the truth about my escapism. I wanted to be a hero without going outside and getting fit and doing the things necessary to be as heroic as my imaginations.

The College Years

It was only when I went off to college that I began to experiment with other forms of writing.Taking certain English and Theatre classes inspired me to work on forms of poetry and script-writing. I could be a little more creative with these styles because of how different the structure is than story-telling.

My fuel for my writing creativity? Mountain Dew.

College classes even helped me improve my creative writing. Short stories forced me to make my conflicts and resolutions more succinct. Not only that, but my stories became more centered in realism. Instead of making up action heroes and apocalypses, I wrote about normal teens and young adults in normal settings (mostly). It was also cool to see my Catholic faith influence more of these short stories. Even back in high school, my characters had gone to Catholic school or went to Mass every so often, but now in college as I developed my faith I began to promote Catholic teachings through the themes and conflicts in the stories. Had it not been for these college courses though, I would still be stuck writing terribly long, action-based tales where everything goes well for the hero and the only conflict is punching evil in the face.

In case you need a visual reference for punching evil in the face.

To Answer the Previous Questions

Now after giving you a somewhat strange account of my life (all part of my crazy future memoir, I'm sure), I guess I should answer those questions I posted earlier.

Why do I turn back to writing time and again? I suppose I have always had an active imagination. I write in order to continue develop daydreams because I can't help but daydream all the time.

Who wouldn't daydream when driving through a view like this?

Also, that escapism that occurs when I write helps me live out some aspirations about the kind of guy I would like to be. Those qualities I give my main heroic characters are the qualities I wish I had. When I'm not doing creative writing, usually I write in order to comment on an issue that is on my mind. Usually there is some sort of topic or debate that is really bugging me and I put my thoughts on paper or document through a creative style of writing to clear my head.

Why did I pick a bunch of creative writing classes as my electives in college? At first it was a way to fill an elective credit by doing something that I was already doing with my free time growing up. After that first class, I realized that while I enjoyed writing I still had much to learn on how to craft a good story together. So I took those classes in order to continue practicing my writing craft, make some mistakes, and learn from my peers and instructors what makes a good story and what I can add to the writing world.

Why do I write so many blog posts? Like I said, I often contemplate on various issues that come up in my life and I like to work out my thoughts on those issues by putting it in writing. A blog is just a different style of writing in general and story-telling in particular. Also, this is a great way to keep my family and friends back home updated on my life and dive deeper into those updates.