BASIC WRITER QUESTION: WHY BOTHER

The best writer question is the one they ask themselves before starting their daily word haul.

It’s a question writers never want readers to ask, so they ask themselves:

Why bother? Here’s why:

Artistic expression comes in all sizes and shapes to begin with, and writing is one of them. Painters paint, sculptors sculpt, players play, singers sing. And writers write.

Which one fits best?

If you like a mess, painting brings it. If you like breaking and cutting things, sculpting is the thing. Making is ruckus sounds fun? Sing and play.

For those of us who like our quiet time, but need something productive to do in quiet time, the writer question is easy.

Why Bother Is Still The Writer Question

Do you need permission to be a writer? No, but if you do, here it is: You may commence writing . . . NOW.

But that’s not the sort of permission writers ask for. What they want is validation, acceptance, acknowledgement. When it comes from outside, problems start.

From inside, not so much. Call it confidence, ignorance, or not giving a f#ck, but writers who persist draw on something lacking in others. And they stay on it.

But still, why bother? Think of the problems and trials that come with each day. The myriad of choices and decisions can be crippling. An alert citizen takes to self-care and finds something to calm down with.

Maybe they read a story, a book, or most rare, a blog like boomerpdx. If you’ve found a measure of solace by reading, then you know the answer to why bother.

My readers, like you, catch up from all across the globe, every state in the Union, and hundreds of cities. If one reader searches for their answer, and lands here, keep reading. You won’t feel cheated, scandalized, and click baited. Nothing to buy, sample, or test. Eye strain, maybe.

Forty-nine percent of you check in on mobile, forty-seven percent on a desktop, and three percent on a tablet. The decimal points round up to one hundred for the math wizards in the crowd.

America is the origin for the majority of my readers, though enough foreign readers come around to prompt me to include a translator on the sidebar. The west coast is my primary audience, the northwest corner in particular.

Reader traffic from Oregon is particularly gratifying, with those from the southwest coast towns of North Bend and Coos Bay an added treasure. And not because I’m happy they even know how to read. It’s because that’s where I grew up.

Tigard and Portland deliver readers here like clockwork. Their time on site is amazing. They actually read more than the page that their search delivered. When I consider how often I stick around a new site, I’m amazed. Who else looks for the slightest reason to click off and get away as fast as possible?

You Might Be A Writer If . . .

One of my pals who works with business people says this: “When I have someone come in agitated that the company isn’t doing what they feel are optimal practices, I like to remind them that they could start their own company and see how it goes, but now, this is the job.”

When I hear someone talk in a particular way, I know they should be a writer. They tell their story, go on tangents, then bring it back to the main point just in time before the next loop out and back. Their forays into seemingly unrelated topics adds context when they return to the main thread.

But I never mention it. Why? Because of the special words I read during my English major days. It went something like this: “Do I think college ruins writers? Not enough, because I don’t need the competition.”

I think it was either Willa Cather or Eudora Welty, but I couldn’t find the quote. Maybe Flannery O’Connor? Anyone confirm this?

You might be a writer even if you tell no one. Who needs the grief, right? Better to be discovered and hear, “I never knew you were a writer.”

If you keep showing up to the page, the work in progress page, or the blank page, you know the drill. It’s you versus what, attention span, sloth, procrastination?

Or, is it You vs The Day and making it the best damn day you ever lived, then getting it down, creatively organized, and artistically presented.

I read my favorite twitter follow, @tcboyle who does social media the right way, for insight. He posts local pictures, the same local pictures, with the title Local Plague Time.

If I’m reading it correctly, Dr. Boyle is showing a version of time passing, the sort of time writers stop in their work, while we readers enjoy the magic. Or, as he mentions, he might be going quietly mad in isolation.

Why not do some magic of your own? You have all the permission you need.