Talk to The Quill Tuesday: Why Do I Write?

Writing for me is as vital as food is for the body. I am nourished through the beloved written word. With my mind, it feeds the creator within me and I have loved it since the moment pen touched paper. 

Indeed I dare say, my first romance was that of written word. I loved the fact that not only could I be whoever I wanted, but I could build whoever, be wherever, exist however I destine something to be. I could create worlds from nothing, I could BE the big bang in a characters theory, and it was and is a beautiful thing. 

What drove me was being inspired from frequently reading other works such as the Holy bible (recently, I confess), Danielle Steele, James Patterson, Stephen King, J.k Rowling, R.L stein, Edgar Allen Poe, Stephene Myers and many more contributed to my style and voice as a young writer. 

When I first began, it was with poetry, I was a terribly lonesome thing with not a friend in the world, so...I made one :), a small purple spiral notebook, 80 page count :), I filled the pages with my every thought and unspoken world until at last I did not feel so alone in my existence. I would open the pages of epics, fairy tales, adventures, horrors, thrillers, mysteries and such, to explore and be apart of their world as they pulled me in, I felt Invited and understood. It’s safe to say God brought the love of writing and literature into my world, it saved my young life. 

After poetry, I felt I had a bit more to say. My favorite Genre at the time (8-13) was horror, thriller and mystery, I begged my mom for anything Nancy Drew related and sharpened my skills by solving mysteries and puzzles posted in the daily papers or in coloring books, helping shaggy and the gang solve their problems to, around this time I wanted to be a detective. With this, I began writing short stories. 

A couple of years after this (13-16) I was introduced to the feelings of romance, my pages were littered with exes and o’s, roses and violets, it was my most favorite feeling at the time and I wasted not a moment of ink to jot down every stomach with butterfly syndrome moment I could, I was moved by stories of princesses and the knights that saved them, and so, I began writing longer stories, but this time, fairy tales. 

At age (17-19) I began working on my first book. I was proud of it, I loved it, I worked every day and night to make it the best that I could. 

It was then that I discovered the hardest reality of them all, no one would love my work as much as I did (or so I thought) or appreciate it in the same manner, my work was all child play in the mind of an adolescent, and for the first time I was greatly discouraged and dropped my pen. 

(20- present day) I am proud to say I have written and completed three books that are currently in their editing process. I still enjoy a bit of poetry for my own nostalgia every now and then, short stories are still a favorite, I have now grown into prose and monologues as well as script writing, I love it more now that I did at 8 and it grows every day. Of course I still face opposition, but I expect it all the more in my line of work, a profession that is taken advantage of every waking moment yet its pen bearers and typers are shunned as a waste of time and energy, my what ignorant world we live in. 

I currently post my work on www.booksie.com under the name Jasmine Howard, right now there is only poetry, prose and monologues, I also dabble in Fan fiction for the fun of keeping my blood going, my username is Jasmine D Howard. 

As far as the genre in which I write, I consider myself multigenred as a novelist, poet, and children's author. Thriller, mystery, adventure, Spiritual, a bit of romance here or there, sci-fi and children's are my favorites at the moment. 

I can truly say that my objective as a writer is to inspire as I had been, and to invite others into my own worlds of wonders.

To all my writers out there, what’s your story? what motivated you to write? why do you still do it, and where do you want to take it? 

photo is not my own