I like writing

I love writing for several reasons.

First, I like the research. It allows me to learn, and  learning means I’m still growing. I can research insignificant facts, like what the temperature of the water is in a creek in the Black Hills of South Dakota in May, or I can research something more complex like Native American customs. In all cases the research makes my stories more credible, perhaps gives my readers some information they’ll enjoy, and the research always stimulates my curiosity.

I also like writing, and I don’t mean to sound sacrilegious, because in a way I get to play God. I’m the creator. I determine who has a role in my stories. My characters succeed or fail based on what I want to have happen. They do things only because I let them. They go where I want them to go. And I decide who lives and who dies. Nowhere does a person have more power than an author of fiction.

When I write, I escape reality. While at the keyboard, I’m transported into my story. Whether I’m fighting the Pawnee in the Black Hills, investigating a murder in Santa Fe, New Mexico, or just having a conversation with a pretty woman in Houston, I’ve temporarily left planet earth, immersed completely in a world I’ve created, a world away from my normal routine, and away from that real world with so many problems I read about every day in the news – problems over which I have little or no control. For a few hours while I’m writing, I’m somewhere else, and I’m in control. What a wonderful place it is.

I like writing for the number of times people demonstrate respect for me because I took the time and discipline to write novels. And finally, I like writing for the many times I run into a friend or stranger who tells me they read my book and enjoyed it. What a sense of value and pride to know that I’ve done something that gave others a bit of entertainment.