If you ask most people why they write, the answer would be ‘I don’t’ and I personally don’t think they need to.

Writing is for a few people.

Looking on social media and keeping track of aspiring authors, it might seem like there are a lot more authors out there. In reality, true authors are relatively few in number. According to sources, there are an average of 45,000 authors represented in bookstores at any given time. This mirrors the statistic that there are roughly 45,000 authors in the US.

If my math is correct, that’s roughly 1 writer for every 7,000 people.

That’s not a huge number.

So, what drives the few?

I’ve heard some people say they go crazy if they don’t write. As if keeping the ideas bottled up in their heads would lead to some teakettle eruption. Some people need to get an idea out. Others write to help process something. I’m guessing some people write to live out fantasies.

Whatever the reason, some people do feel compelled to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and get something from their imagination out into the world.

What I do find interesting, is the number of people who profess to be writers who anguish over their writing, almost to the point of dread. It almost seems like they have a love-hate relationship with their writing.

Personally, I don’t get that.

If you have a story, why would it be painful to set it free?

Why would writing cause pain?

For me, writing is a release. It’s a chance for me to root myself in my imagination. I picture the scenes as they are flowing out of my head. I hear my characters. I feel their emotions. Each scene and character is a piece of me that I’m letting out into the world.

For me, writing it joy. There is very little in life I would rather be doing other than writing. There are things I enjoy, but in the end, writing always calls to me.

In one form or another I have been writing since I was seven.

I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon.

What are your creative releases? What outlet can you not live without? Does it cause you pain?

On the writing front, I’m slowly making progress on book three. I don’t see a summer pub date, but I’m still hoping for this fall.

In the meantime, keep on reading, keep on floating in some cool water, and keep on flying the Black.