Thursday, April 7, 2011

Who Are You Writing For?

Since I starting this whole "I'm a writer" phase of my life, I've contemplated the above question.  Am I writing for myself?  To give myself an identity, a hobby, an outlet?  To have my moment to connect to the world?  To be a part of a larger writing community and make friends outside my little immediate world?

Or am I doing it for my children?  To leave them a piece of myself to pass down to their children?  To show them it's okay to follow a dream?  To instill a love of reading and writing in them?  To give them a happy and fulfilled mother?

Or for other children?  To share a story?  Touch a life?  Entertain? 

I think the answer is all of the above.  Yes to each question.  I'm doing it for each of those reasons.  Some of them are terribly selfish.  Some of them are hopelessly idealistic.  Realistic and unrealistic.  And I love each and every reason.  They are all me.

12 comments:

  1. I am so happy you ended with that last paragraph. The first two brought tears to my eyes. I think I write for all those reason as well. I'll have to reflect on it a bit more, though...write up my own post once I figure it out. Nice job.

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  2. I love how you think. I'm writing for children in a Christian vein too. I hope you will look for my blog when you get a chance. We have a lot in common.
    www.honeycombadventures.com

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  3. Mostly, I think I'm writing for my kids, but all of those things do come into play. :-)

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  4. Loved this post! These are all great reasons. I write for me, because I just have to, but also for my kids. It makes me so happy when they want to read my stories.

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  5. I completely agree with the last bit. I know I write for all of the above. :)

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  6. Yes to all. And there are probably reasons I'm not even conscious of.

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  7. Hi. I just saw your query on WriteonCon and had to drop you a line. Hope you don't mind. I thought Basie was just oh so cute and I had to tell you.
    I work with children in their first year at school and whilst some of them are off the scale with their reading, they all enjoy a good 'children's' story book.
    I thought the acorn dropping was terrific and the actual story name too.
    So good luck with it. For what it's worth, I thought it was absolutely delightful!

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  8. A pleasure Megan. I hope one day to read Basie to a heap of children! I already was turning the pages in my mind. Strange how some ideas do that! Yours is one of them! Good luck.

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  9. What a great post, Megan. So thoughtful and articulate. I think you have just summed up all the reasons I write, though I don't think I could ever have put it so well!

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  10. I love each and every reason too. Well said Megan!

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  11. I was happy when I got to the part that said "all of the above"! Go Megan!

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