What excites you about writing?

What excites you about writing?

The interviewer asked me.

I was nervous because I did not know the answer to his question.

How could I answer a question I have never asked myself?

I was doing the nodding and smiling thing we all do during interviews, while twisting my fingers in my laps and scraping off my nail polish.

Think! Think! Do not mess this up, I urged silently.

Then I blurted, “Writing is like building.”

Before you begin, it’s just a space, a wasteland of sorts. In writing, it is a blank paper or a blank screen with the cursor blinking at you challengingly.

Then you start word by word, creating something out of nothing. Before you know it, one word transforms into a sentence, then a paragraph, then a page.

It is this process that excites me when I write.

The interviewer seemed satisfied.

But I was confused.

I kept thinking about it after the interview. What excites me about writing?

Nothing good comes easy, and writing is one of them. A writer’s trademark is consistency and discipline. That is one trait I am working hard to develop.

What makes you consistent as a writer?

It is the answer to this; What excites you about writing?

Thanks to the interviewer, I found the answer.

Every time I return to the blank screen to build a mansion of words. I paint each room with any emotion I feel at the time of writing. When readers walk in, they see these emotions clearly, like paint dripping with its sharp odour.

They feel it as strongly as I did when writing each of those words.

So when I don’t feel like writing, I remind myself of these feelings, the euphoria of building a mansion with words.

This feeling seems to be the strongest pull I have to return to the blank screen every time.

So your turn, What excites you about writing?

Please share your answers below.

PS I got the job, yay🎉

Advertisement