Why do you write?

Many ask if writing can be taught?  It's not about teaching how to write; it's about why to write.


Sandra Cisneros wrote in THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET:

I like to tell stories, I tell them inside my head. I tell them after the mailman says, Here's your mail. Here's your mail he said.

I make a story for my life, for each step my brown shoe takes. I say, "And so she trudged up the wooden stairs, her sad brown shoes taking her to the house she never liked."

I like to tell stories. I am going to tell you a story about a girl who didn't want to belong.

We didn't always live on Mango Street. Before that we lived on Loomis on the third floor, and before that we lived on Keeler. Before Keeler it was Paulina, but what I remember most is Mango Street, sad red house, the house I belong but do not belong to.

I put it down on paper and then the ghost does not ache so much. I write it down and Mango says goodbye sometimes. She does not hold me with both arms. She sets me free.

Creative Write: Do you write so "the ghost does not ache so much"? Do you write your freedom? Consider the possibilities of your writing today. Share a line of "why" with us