Why do I write?

I write for a variety of reasons. Mostly because I enjoy it. I'm an opinionated person, and writing gives me the chance to air those opinions without actually shoving them down people's throats.

I write because I like to spin stories. I've had an active imagination since I was born - I probably spent my time in the womb spinning tales to occupy my time until birth!

I write because I want to inspire people. I've been inspired so many times by reading words that ordinary, everyday people have written - without fanfare or recognition. They write simply because they love to write, to share their tales, and their honesty and openness is more inspiring than words that have been edited a million times so that it's polished, perfect and lacking in the emotion that originally created the story. I hope that with some of my writing I can inspire people in the same way.

I write because I like to explore people. In creating characters that live and breathe, I learn how people act and react, how they think and feel. I get to place myself in the lives of people I would never otherwise come to understand and accept.

I write because in the end, writing allows me to explore my whole self: the light that seeks to inspire others with real, heroic characters, and the dark that allows me to imagine a character who can commit horrendous acts and still sleep at night.

I write because it allows me to accept who I am, without fears or reservations of being weird, crazy or psychotic. The words don't judge me. The story doesn't mock me for writing it. In the end, I'm writing a story about who I am, the experiences that lead me to tell a tale and although it's wrapped up in labels of young adult, fantasy, fiction, romance - those labels cover what is essentially my life - told from the perspective of characters who may or may not be all of me.

I am because I write.

I write, because I am.