Reasons to Write: #1 Balance

The reasons we write - or the reasons we don't - are very personal, don't you think?

It's no particular secret that I haven't written for some time, and that I haven't written regularly for longer than I care to remember. I've made some measure of peace with that - it's never felt like a permanent situation, more like a pause. I'm hibernating. Out of season.

It'll come back. Or, rather, I'll come back to writing.

I'm not going to blog about the reasons I'm 'pausing'. At least, not today! It's enough for me to know what they are, to have learned to respect them, and to say, "it's okay. It's not permanent." (And not serious, either, so don't worry, if you're so inclined! :-) )

I'd rather talk about all the reasons TO write. I've been thinking about them a lot, lately.

Personally, I think writing helps to balance my life, to balance ME. The dayjob's a pretty heavy load on one end of a seesaw - it would be very easy to let it be all-consuming, to live for that, to think of that all the time. It would be very easy to be goal-orientated, project-focussed, NHS-management-speak-obssessed, musing all the time on codings and admissions avoidance, scrutiny and impact-assessment.

I'd rather spend at least some time wondering how to get my hero and heroine in bed, and what they'd do there that would be unique between them, how to blow up a cathedral (long story) and what would happen if THIS historical character had chances to meet THIS historical character.... Immersing myself on that imaginary world stops me immersing myself - unhealthily - in this real one.

And probably only a writer could consider full immersion in the real world as 'unhealthy'.

So. My number one reason to write: Balance.

What are yours?

(Warning: I'll probably shameless pinch your ideas and blog about them....)

Come back Thursday for Christina's next post!