Hello everyone! I haven't been as active with the forums lately because I had been gone for around two months and was trying to catch up. It's amazing, being gone for so long you really start to realize how much the people and meaningful (along with crazy ) conversations you have with them really matter to you. So, thanks for being my "web family" everyone!

Now as for the post, it's going to be short because the question is. I was applying this to myself and thought I'd also ask around here.

Why? Why do you do all this? Why do you write?

I never like to ask a question like this one expecting people to answer without first giving mine so here it is:

My first reason (As the Westminster Catechism says in answer to, "What is the chief end of man?") "To glorify God and enjoy him forever." God put me on this earth for that purpose and I am not going to turn around and seek to glorify myself through my writings.

Second, to see my imaginations come to life. I have so much stored in my brain and often times I'll forget it because there's so much. So I write my stories, draw my character's, and describe my worlds all with the challenge of showing people a fraction of what I see in the process.

Finally, to have another excuse to run off into the woods, hear the birds around me see the fox trot by and build another world.

I found there were a lot more reasons but that's the basic idea.

Sorry I said this would be short (hey it's shorter... ) but the main point is, yeah if I get some cash writing books, awesome, I'll put it towards a farm so I'll have a property when I decide to settle down and get married. If not, that's OK too. My farm will just have to wait.

So how about everyone else? Why do you write?

It's gotten mixed up. First I wanted to write good books. Then, I needed to earn money, and since I study writing, I'm going to try and earn money from publishing. And right now, the money part is pretty important.. but still, I don't think I could handle doing it if the books I write are useless and do nothing for people, if they are not really good.

So, I am not really sure what my primary reason to write is.

But certainly one reason is a love for the characters that I make. They are like friends.

I made a thing called Inspire that lists my reasons for writing. It reads as follows:

I am in control of my story
New ways to tell the world what I think is important
Share my imagination
Power to create
It brings everything back into scale
Right from wrong is always established
Encourage and influence other Christian teens to write for God.

I continue to write and world build because it has given me such a fascinating perspective on aspects of God I had not given much consideration. I love the methodical, weaving nature of story-telling and world building, but it also helps me process things in my life indirectly as I work out plot points and character arcs. I don't write as much as I would like to do, but I find it harder to be distracted from God when I'm pouring out words than I do with any other task or hobby.

I love the creativity of writing - being able to bring your imaginings to life. I think I primarily write because I enjoy it. I love the feeling of being lost in another world that I've created. At the moment, I'm so busy, writing is just an escape for me: something that I can enjoy in the rare peaceful moments.

I probably have the same reason for writing as most people have for reading. The ideas interest me, and I enjoy them. I think of writing more as discovering or finding out about things; in fact, my main problem is thinking the ideas and not writing them down.