Why do we write?

As a job? To earn a living? To express our thoughts and emotions? To share our knowledge? Or simply because we’re good at it?

I first started to write creatively when I read Jules Verne’s “A Journey to the Center of the Earth”. It was science fiction that got me mesmerized into reading a novel or any fiction for that matter. For years I’ve tried to duplicate that talent, trying my hand in fiction writing of the incredible, bizarre and simply outrageous. But alas, I admit I am not gifted that way.

Or is it I have not yet polished my craft?

I still keep on writing fiction although less frequently now. I somehow lost my zest as life turned more serious with all-new responsibilities and obligations mainly for my family. Suddenly life hit me hard. I have to earn a living and set aside my ambition to be a great writer.

But legends are born out of difficulties. Edgar Allan Poe died penniless and yet he crafted poems and stories that until now can send shivers down anybody’s spine. There are a lot of others like him who continued writing, perhaps because they knew they were good at it, and yet all the while not earning enough from it.

I have this long-standing dream to publish just one book before I die. A fiction. Right now all that I want is a children’s story book that will stand through the ages. Am I too ambitious? The way I see it, if you’re going to dream, dream big.

Am I making sense here? Forgive me if I do not. This is one of those times when I write while I think (or feel) and doesn’t bother much about conformity and the rules of good writing.

I’m in dreamland, everybody.

If I have any dream as a writer, it’s to publish a line of children’s story books. All written by myself. I already have two stories although they are not yet polished.

I am not aiming along the line of J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series because that is already an epic. I don’t want an epic. I want a story that is short that little children will fall in love with and remember even well into their adulthood. It is a grand dream, I know, but every writer has such a dream.

And with any story book there should be illustrations. I have a very close friend who is a professional illustrator. He has even worked as an illustrator for various cartoons, designed a number of company logos and even designed the mascot of a popular notebook manufacturer. It is also his dream to come out with a book just like what I have in mind. The only thing is we don’t have the money to publish it ourselves. We are thinking of going to established publishers, but we still have to complete our stories.

This is one of my 5- to 10-year goals. It is also the main reason why I want to be rich; not to have all the good things in life, but simply to publish my own children’s story books.

Yesterday, I went back to our old house. I went straight to my old room, glanced up on the bookshelves and started to mentally sort my old books still placed there.

That’s why I went back. I wanted to get some of the books which I think are too valuable to be left behind. By valuable I do not mean that they are expensive. It’s just that they are a bit hard to find from the bookstores or that they have sentimental value.

Take for example my copy of Strunk and White’s ‘The Elements of Style’. While that book is still very much around, you won’t have a hard time getting a new copy, it’s my second copy which I frequently consulted when I was still in college. I always had it in my bag.

Why is it my second copy? A classmate borrowed the first one and never returned it. Since then I’ve always been more careful on to whom I am lending my books.