What Writing Means to Me

Writing is many things for me.

It’s logistically efficient. As I write, I automatically develop a framework within which to develop or expand on perspective. In addition, writing, for me, leads to a form of self-analysis. It’s also a format for organizing knowledge and supposition, and a way of communicating with the kind of precision often lacking in oral information exchange.

It’s a personally productive way of earning a living. Not only is it a skill that is useful enough to others that they are willing to hand over money for it, but it also keeps me enthusiastic about starting each day.

Writing is a cathartic exercise, an all-purpose cure for what ails me. It’s cheaper than a trip abroad, easier than mountain climbing, and more pleasant than doing time for homicide. (Writing well is the best revenge, even if you never publish the result save on your own printer in the dead of night.)

All of that is true, but it doesn’t touch on the most significant thing about writing for me – it’s just plain fun, sometimes of the sweetly agonizing sort, but always fun.

© 2009, Gail Hewitt. All rights reserved.

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