Why…

Why do I want people to read my books… that is quite a difficult question to answer. I suppose it’s the same for singers or musicians or oral story-tellers… why de we feel as if we have to perform, why do we seek an audience, why do we feel people should pay attention to us?

For many people it would be a way to earn their living, but even with them it must be more than that; you create something or deliver something and somehow it’s not enough to do it for yourself.  So it is just self-gratification, do we do it for the buzz we get from doing it and having a reaction, good, bad or indifferent? Is it somehow trying to ratify or recognize or maybe validate what we do?

I’m not claiming to be a great writer, I’m not setting myself up against other authors, but I would like people to read what I write, to choose my book over someone else’s… I have these tales in my head, and I enjoy playing with them, I write them down and I enjoy the process, and the editing and refining .. why can’t I just leave it like that? Why have I always sent stuff to publishers, entered writing competitions, tried to find a literary agent? In the past it might have been to become a professional writer, but now I no longer work and can (and do) write all day, why do I publish what I have written?

Why? because I want to share, I have a compulsion to tell, as a singer has to sing, and part of that telling or singing is to have a listener or reader, otherwise, for me a lot of the joy would vanish… talking to yourself is not as much fun as having a conversation!