Three Things I Love About Writing (Repost)

I wrote this initial post when I started this blog back in 2022. I've gotten enough new folks on my email list recently that I wanted to share it again. Reading through it four years later, it still stands true. To all of you who are new here, welcome. Thank you for joining me on my writing and learning journey, and know that here, your voice matters. 

​Hello readers!

I am new to blogging, but I am excited to try it out and become a part of a community of passionate readers and writers like myself! With that being said, I thought I'd start out by mentioning three of many reasons why I absolutely adore writing. Read on for more. 

There are a lot of wonderful aspects writing, and there are many annoying or scary things that can go along with it. This week, I’d like to talk about my three favorite aspects of writing.


1. Writing is a creative outlet.
I know, how vague can I be, right? But it’s true: for me, at least, any writing I do provides me some kind of creative satisfaction. I’ve done quite a few different kinds of writing, and writing is incorporated in just about everything I do.

​When I was writing product advertisements for a local business, I was given the satisfaction of showing people with my words how cool a product can be. In that job, the products were typically used items, and combining my optimistic attitude and well taken, detailed images, I was able to really give these items the attention they deserved. Not to mention, writing this way allowed me the ability to express one thing I really loved about that job. I've had the opportunity to write training manuals in the past. These types of writing projects allowed me to pay attention to details that were often left out of guides I had been trained with previously and allowed me to chronicle my knowledge for future employees.

As a teacher, writing expectations and announcements for my students has given me the creativity to tell my pupils exactly what I wanted them to do. I was able to depict my love of writing for them while giving them clear examples of what to do, and mistakes to avoid. Plus, it always gave me an excuse to practice my handwriting on the whiteboard, which is oddly satisfying. I also made a habit of writing notes along with my students much of the time, which allowed me to pass on my love of a good, organized set of notes to them. This also gave us ground to bond on. From my experience, students don’t really ask, “why do I have to write this down?” if you’re writing it with them.

Let’s talk research papers for school. For a while, especially as I started out my college writing career, I realized I had to step up my game. I was eventually able to figure these kinds of papers out (an article for another time, perhaps), and I quickly discovered that even with essay topics I wasn’t super fond of, I could do some amazing things with them. Thanks to this adapted attitude, I got to explore ideas and concepts I wouldn’t normally think to look into.

And of course, we can’t forget the actual creative projects: my novels, short stories, and poems. I think one day I’ll go into depth about my love for these kinds of projects and talk more about what I’ve learned, and continue to learn, from them; but for now, all I can say is that these projects bring color to my life. Not only do I get to create new worlds and characters, but I get to experience them! That’s pretty phenomenal.




2. Writing keeps me sharp.
One thing I’ve learned as a writer and as a teacher is that there is ALWAYS something I can improve on. Whether it's improving my grammar, expanding my knowledge of punctuation, growing my vocabulary, or looking for plot holes, there is always something new I can learn, always something more I can practice. I love that.

I've recently found that I enjoy writing workshops and book clubs. Writing workshops are great because having someone to look at your work from a critical perspective is crucial to growing your skills as a writer. It's all too easy to fall in love with what you've created and ignore the errors, issues with your plot, contradictions in your character designs, or (especially so in my case) redundancies that interrupt your syntax. Having someone who can look at your work and say, "This could be better," or "Maybe try doing it this way," can be incredibly valuable to developing as a writer.

Book clubs are wonderful as well, not only because they motivate me to keep reading, but they allow me an environment in which I can think aloud about a text, the characters, the plot. Having a people I can discuss books with has strengthened my ability to look at the choices an author makes and what makes those choices so successful. 

As my writing skills have developed, I have found ways to deal with stress, life changes, and have learned new ways to process information. I’m a list maker by nature, and even completing writing tasks such as a pro's and con's list - or writing in a journal - has helped me work on becoming a well-rounded, dynamic person.



3. Writing connects me with other people.
When I started writing, I had no idea how supportive the writing communities out in the world could be. Yes, I experienced great support and feedback from my peers and professors in college, but that was barely breaching the surface of what I would experience later.

Having joined the writing communities on social media, I have opened myself up to a world of extremely supportive, incredibly artistic, genuine human beings - all of whom share my love of putting words on pages.

I have also met many amazing people who share my love of reading, and through these people I have also gained support, encouragement, and critical feedback that has helped me grow tremendously as a writer (and as a person, too). 

For those of you out there who love writing, do it. Connect with people around you who share your interests. You never know how you might be inspired. Go for it. And writers? Keep writing. No matter what.