Paul R

I’ve always been a good writer, as long as I can remember.

Not great, not average, just good.

I remember the first story I wrote and how the images and thoughts in my head so easily made their way to paper. I was seven.

I believe it is a natural gift but nothing miraculous. I suppose for most of my life I thought it was a gift given to me for some greater purpose, a notion most ‘gifted’ people entertain at some point, I suspect.

But now I think it was given to me for more a pragmatic reason … to keep from going bat-s**t crazy (I like that expression.)

Though I know I’m a good writer, I have never worked at being great … or even being better. I’ve never felt anyone would be particularly interested in anything I had to write or any story I might want to tell.

I still don’t.

I started writing in this format to get better and find a voice for the talent I’ve squandered to some extent. In that way, I am writing mostly for myself.

But I don’t know if I believe any writer who claims to write only for themselves. There will always be at a least a small part of their heart that wants the work to be read.

It would be special to learn someone was reading my work and more special to learn they took something away – a feeling, a thought, an emotion, an idea … I don’t think how or how much sticks with someone is important … just that it does.