"Why do you write?"

I remember that question being thrown at me like a dry morsel during my first semester as a Creative Writing student. It's a very perplexing question that I needed to gnaw on for a long time. The question felt as existential as asking myself "Why do I exist?" I think I went on to say that cliche, unimaginative line "I write to express myself," which any CW teacher would accept as literary juvenilia and totally ignoble because they'd be more impressed if one would say "I write because I am" or "Because I want to challenge the literary canon."

Now, I think I should have said "I write because I am obliged." That would have been more practical. There were really a lot of things obliging me to write aside from being enrolled in the CW course. Outside of class, I see a lot of things and live through things that needed to be written to be understood. Growing up, I had gradually become aware of the fragility of the present and the past. Experience grows old and sometimes fades with memory. I think writing an experience is totally living it. When writing, one considers an experience like one would a photograph or a painting. One looks from afar to see the big picture and then one looks closely to see the details. And then one turns the canvas or the photograph around to see what's behind.

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I think this will be a never-ending essay. I will write more on this in the coming days.

Meanwhile, visit http://whywewriteseries.wordpress.com to read what drives other writers to write.