April 7, 2002

Welcome to Wyndspirit Dreams ! Last night a coworker asked me one of the toughest questions I’ve ever been asked: "How do you write a story?" I’ve never been asked that before. I’ve had people tell me about "good ideas" they’ve had that they want to write about someday. I’ve had people tell me they would like to write if only they had more time, more patience, more talent… But nobody has ever asked me how to write.

I was completely caught off-guard. I don’t know how I write. I just write! I had no idea what to tell her. I finally told her a little about a couple of the projects I’m working on. I told her about writing The Haunting just because I wanted to know what happened next. I told her about the scrap paper outline I did for Mirajhi, jotting scene ideas on memo cube sheets at work, and then one day stringing them all together and discovering I had a rough outline of my story. I mentioned Wyndspirit Dreams and how I often get ideas from quotations. I told her about a story idea I jotted down that came from a dream I had. I don’t think I answered her question.

Our conversation went on to other things, but ever since, I’ve been thinking of things I wish I’d said to her. I wish I’d told her you don’t need to be an English major to write. You don’t even need to have liked English class. I wish I’d told her it starts with having something to say, it doesn’t matter what. I wish I’d told her that a writer is compelled to write, even when the words don’t want to come.

And that is the gist of it. I am a writer. I may not be published, but I am unquestionably a writer. I might be automatically scribbling down the day’s usual exciting events in my journal. Maybe I’m flying along trying to keep up with my thoughts as I write on a story, high on words, thinking, "This is what I am meant to be doing!" Maybe I’m struggling in the wee hours of the morning to come up with a topic for that week’s Wyndspirit Dreams, for no other reason than I made a commitment to myself. I do it because I’m compelled to do it.

But that still would not answer her question. How do I write? I don’t know! How do you breathe?