NCTE member Deanna Mascle offers three-minutes-worth of reasons on why we write.
You can express your reasons on Twitter to #WhyIWrite, now and especially on October 20 when we celebrate the National Day on Writing.
Here are a few #WhyIWrite responses to which I hope you’ll add yours:
YA Author, ALAN Workshop presenter, and 2015 NCTE Intellectual Freedom Award winner Laurie Halse Anderson says,
“I write because it helps me breathe…because there are stories in my heart that only I can tell.”
Author of the most frequently challenged book in America, Sherman Alexie, writes,
“And now I write books for teenagers because I vividly remember what it felt like to be a teen facing everyday and epic dangers. I don’t write to protect them. It’s far too late for that. I write to give them weapons–in the form of words and ideas-that will help them fight their monsters. I write in blood because I remember what it felt like to bleed.”
Global Teacher Prize winner Nancie Atwell tells why her students write and what writing does for them,
“My students grow up stronger, they’re more contemplative because they write, they’re more patient because they write, they’re more logical, they’re more compassionate because of those hundreds of hours they spend with the pen in the hand thinking and rethinking the stuff of their lives.”
Why Do You Write? Please share at #WhyIWrite
