Some of us are more logical in our writing, the thrill of publishing sitting on our shoulder like the devil, pushing us to make the words earn their keep.

Others of us are more spiritual, the joy of creating our only drive, with publishing not a worry.

The grand majority of us fall on the spectrum. Some would like to make money but love the creativity, that lack of material need directing us toward writing as a hobby. Others spend an hour or two a day writing solely for certain markets, payment defining the value of the work.

I am a big fan of The Marginalian, previously Brain Pickings, and it often serves as my Sunday paper, taking in good writing about the philosophies of life. Maria Popova often talks of writers, and why they write. Recently she wrote so succinctly, that her concepts stole my breath away.

“In the end, the measure of our strength is in how we face the fact that we. . . mortal, vulnerable creatures of uncommon creativity and courage, body-minds born to die and to make meaning of our fragile existence not by clinging to the self but by practicing our various arts of unselfing: love, creative work, (and) transcendent communion with the rest of nature.”  ~Maria Popova, the Marginalian

Whether reader or writer, words tend to give meaning to our existence. Fiction or nonfiction, historical or contemporary, adult works or children’s tales, romance or science fiction, free verse or haiku, we seek words that lock into our world with meaning. We seek that a-ha moment of understanding.

We want to read about others, their successes and failures, and the myriad of strife in between. Even the genius and the wealthy have flaws . . . or we hope. We’re eager to see that we are not alone in our struggles.

“There is something else, something subtler, about the allure of our historical heroes. We are drawn them partly because their foreclosed lives, by virtue of having been lived, are free from the uncertainty that bedevils our own; and partly because there is comfort in the knowledge that even people of staggering genius and immense public contribution were dogged by inner contradictions and private suffering not unlike our own.” ~Maria Popova, the Marginalian

So, whether you earn a living writing or not, know that there is a deep-seeded reason you wish to write. It’s human, and it is to give meaning to existence, whether yours or a reader someone.