This is the last installment of my ‘Why and What to Write’ series.

Authors express themselves through the art of writing. Early stories were epistles in the form of cuneiform, Linear B impressed into clay tablets, and hieroglyphics on papyrus. Eventually, words were created and written using the inventions of paper, feather quills dipped into ink, lead pencils, and fountain or ballpoint pens. Various technological revolutions produced mechanical and electric typewriters as new means to capture ideas. Today, writing includes voice-activated, self-typing digitized computer software. Regardless the medium used, one constant remains — the desire by the author for his or her work to be read.

What is to be written and ultimately read? The topics are endless. “Information’s out there. You just have to let it in,” is often stated by one of Robert B. Parker’s characters in the film adaptation of his Jesse Stone books. Personally, as an author, I like to think the stories are out there, and as a writer I just have to let them in. Once a subject is adopted, why write about it?

I believe authors possess an inner creature, a voice if you will, striving to be set free. For some authors their inner being melds with his or her outer self at an early age. As one who began writing later in life, my inner beastie is breaking its mental bonds and escaping through the facade of outer flesh. At this point in my writing, the written word is the means by which my inner freedom is achieved.

As stated in the beginning of this commentary series, authors and writers bring the “Interesting” to life. I endeavor to bring to life, for the reader, those stories I let enter.

Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash