Ellen Mulholland––writer, dreamer
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Why I Write

8/24/2014

4 Comments

 
Picture
This week, I respond to Charli Mills' invitation to answer the question: Why do I write? 

As the summer winds down and another new school year nears, I feel the shakes begin. My summer morning break of dawn habit is about to die out, hibernate for another 9 months, lurk and twist beneath my itching derma. My writing habit must quiet and slow. 

It's not how I want it; it's how it must be. I will certainly try to wake a half hour earlier, in the predawn darkness of my warm bed, slither out onto the floor and feel in the blackness for my one-eyed blinking laptop. Some days will merit worth, others will succumb to the nurturing folds of that maternal duvet.

I write because it is my soul's path. 

Back in the 70s when I was a school girl, I'd lay across my bedroom floor's pink shag carpet and scribble out verses and stories and diary entries. Any school assignment that required writing, I could do it in my sleep. (Math lessons left me in fits of tears at my father's feet.)

I write because it fills my being with joy.

As that same girl, I would also spend summers in the pool. When not in the pool, I'd be on my bike pedaling to the library. Reading filled my imagination, connected me to worlds I hadn't encountered, drew me into lives of wonder. Fueled by the ideas of Judy Blume, E.B.White, Roald Dahl, I soon found myself bursting with my own tales to pen. When my English teachers encouraged my work, there was no stopping me.

 I write because it helps me make sense of a senseless world.

Navigating through adolescence is never easy. It's the theme of most of my books. Again, my path cleared with the help of writers: Austen, Salinger, Lee, and the Bronte sisters. I soon understood that writers had a greater purpose. Writers help us find connections to ourselves and others. They provide us with a foundation when the ground beneath us is cracking. Writers open us up to worlds unknown and offer personal portals to the very confusing world we live in.

I write for the same reasons that I breathe. Without it, I'd cease to be.

I'd like to introduce you to three other writers whose pen has touched my heart. Please visit them. I'd love to hear your comments, too. Why do you write?

Natalie Corbett Sampson Natalie Corbett Sampson lives in Hatchet Lake, Nova Scotia with her husband, four school-aged Munsters and a menagerie of pets. Her day job is a speech language pathologist where she loves helping children improve their ability to communicate with the world around them. When she’s not working, writing or sitting in a hockey rink Natalie loves reading, photography and drawing. You can learn more about Natalie and follow her publishing journey on her blog: www.NatalieCorbettSampson.com.

Ruben Castaneda is a Los Angeles native and former award-winning journalist for the Washington Post. His first book, "S Street Rising", chronicles his time covering the 1980s and 90s crack epidemic in our nation's capital while battling his own addiction with the drug. Ruben mentored me on the Los Angeles Herald Examiner where we covered the outbreak of gang violence and innocent victims caught in the crossfire.

Samantha Williams's first novel is due out later this year.  She is the co-founder of PageCurl Publishing, a group of writers who publish and promote indie writers.

Write on!

4 Comments
ruben castaneda link
8/25/2014 11:27:00 pm

I am naturally introverted and shy, the type of guy who would find the nearest corner at a party and stay there. But I am also curious, and I have loved to read since I was a boy. Love of reading was instilled in me by my parents, who were always reading -- books, magazines, newspaper. As a boy I started out with books about wolves and raptors and sports and the Civil War, and before long started reading the newspaper.
I was about 11 when I decided I should figure out what to do with my life. Writing for a newspaper seemed like a good option, if playing for the Lakers didn't work out.
So I joined the newspaper in high school, and was immediately transformed. When I was in the field, interviewing people for stories, I assumed a more assertive, confident persona.
One day, I was in a school administrator's office, interviewing him for a story for the school paper. It had to do with a school official shutting down a photographer who had been trying to take photos of a school demonstration. I was a skinny adolescent who was scared of girls -- and the gray-suited administrator was nervous. I was hooked.
So began my journalistic career, which has allowed me to cover amazing stories in LA and DC: the big 1985 earthquakes in Mexico City, the capture of "The Night Stalker" serial killer, the 1987 papal visit to LA, the crack epidemic in DC, police brutality in Prince Georges County, Md. There's nothing like getting the goods on someone who is misusing his or her power, and writing about it for the whole world to know.
I can't code or fix a car. Math and science befuddle me.
But I can talk to people and find out their stories and track down court records to find out what happened and write it up in clear and engaging manner.
I can write a book in which I describe how I crawled back from an addiction which almost killed me, how a neighborhood drug dealer protected a church on the block where I made most of my buys, how a resolute police captain had his career derailed when he tried to investigate a killing possibly committed by a crony of Mayor Marion Barry.
I know what to do and who I am when I write. When I don't write, I am lost.

Reply
ellen mulholland
8/26/2014 10:17:53 am

Ruben, I really identify with your final statement. When I write, I, too, find myself. Writing is like being home. Thank you for sharing.

Reply
Ruchira link
9/2/2014 07:12:36 am

Wow! I loved your many reasons of "Why I write"

will check out the writers/authors that you have showcased :)

Reply
Ellen Mulholland link
9/2/2014 01:39:31 pm

Thanks for stopping by, Ruchira, and supporting the other writers. :)

Reply



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  • Home
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