Why I write

Recently, I wrote about how I write daily. In this post, I want to take a step back: Why write in the first place?

If you’re not a writer (yet), it might inspire you to start the practice as well. And if you are one already, ask yourself, what are your reasons for writing?

Here are mine:

Writing to think

Writing slows down my thinking process. And that’s a brilliant thing, especially because my mind tends to race at 100 km/h occasionally.

Forcing myself to articulate my thoughts physically in front of me is a great way to “stress-test” my ideas and expand on them. Oftentimes, when I just write, I come up with even more ideas, arguments, whatever to support my initial thesis. Something, that is pretty challenging to do just in memory.

Putting something (really, it doesn’t matter what) on that blank page, and I have already done the hardest part: I started. It gets easier from there. Because the cogs have started turning.

Writing to understand

One of the best evidence-based studying methods is the so-called “Feynman Technique”. The goal is to learn and understand things by explaining it to others. This always exposes pretty inevitably, where you lack understanding of the subject.

You can practice this by explaining the topic to another person. But you can of course also do it by writing. It doesn’t even have to be published to my blog, just the act of writing down how something works always helps me understand it better.

Writing to process

When I do my daily writing practice without a clear idea in mind about what to write about, I usually resort to something autobiographic. Like how the last day went or what’s currently going through my head¹.

Again, just starting somewhere and keeping on writing is the key here. It takes me to thoughts, conclusions, and clarity I haven’t found before. It’s a pretty easy but effective way to process my emotions. Kinda like therapy, but it’s just me and a sheet of paper.

Writing to document

When I originally launched this website, I elaborated on the hope, that 40-year-old Dominik will look back one day and be genuinely thankful for young me to have started documenting my life and thoughts.

Through writing regularly, my writing becomes a record of the person I was at that specific point in time. Maybe my thoughts and views on the world have changed meanwhile, but this way, I can track, how and why that happened.

Sure, I could also do this in other mediums (like voice notes). But the great thing about writing is, that I don’t really need any specific equipment. Even when I write digitally, .txt files can be read by every computer without specific software. No matter what year it is. It’s just text.

Writing to improve

This reason is twofold for me.

Of course, writing regularly makes me a better writer (duh!). But it makes me a better communicator as well. And being good at that skill is beneficial in every aspect of life, be it in your personal life or your career.

On the other hand, since I speak German natively but write in English, I also improve on that front. I discover tons of new words but also learn to articulate myself better. Because I don’t live in an English-speaking country, this is the main way I train my productive skills (instead of just working on my receptive ones by watching Netflix).

Writing to create (serendipity)

Lastly, writing is also just a creative outlet. It allows me to create something new that hasn’t been out there. I put my perspective out in the world. And maybe it resonates with someone.

This also creates serendipity (what a wonderful word). It enhances the chance that someone might find me and my writing by accident². Just because they looked something up that I’ve explored before or someone shared a post of mine with them. This probability increases with every single post I put out there³.

I will never be able to influence, if and whom my work resonates with. But even if just one person reads a post of mine, and it gives them a new insight, some inspiration or the motivation to create something themselves, it has all been worth it.

These are my reasons for writing. What are yours?

Webnotes

• Robert included me on his “Why we write”-page.

Footnotes

1. Essentially writing morning pages: https://juliacameronlive.com/basic-tools/morning-pages/ ↩

2. I mean, the sheer fact that you are reading this is proof of how great serendipity can be! ↩

3. David Perell explores this idea further in his essay: https://perell.com/essay/serendipity/ ↩