This coming week, I'm giving the keynote at the FIT Creative Writing Institute. The topic of the talk is "Why write?" The writers I hang out with don't really see this as an important question because they long ago answered it--not verbally, they didn't ACTUALLY answer the question. They just wrote and wrote. Still write. They read, too, and they like to read but they don't do it to answer the question "Why read?" Not only does the real writer not wonder if he or she should write, the real writer simply tends to write. Writes letters, writes blogs, writes fiction poetry nonfiction writes writes writes. For real writers there have been times when they didn't write, but they went back to it. Writing does something for them that nothing else does. The level of focus required is addictive. There is a tantalizing illusion that something can be stated perfectly in writing, and the writer chases this illusion even if it is a mirage. In fact the writer doesn't care if it's a mirage, because by writing and thus actively aspiring to perfection, the writer creates something fine if not perfect that didn't exist before.
By the way, a lot of writing will happen at FIT next week, and it would be so great if you'd come over and join us. Bring your tools.
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