Why do I write?

Recently I have been thinking about why I decide to write and where my ideas come from. The real, less pretentious reason for this is because I just love writing. I love the way it can immerse me into another world, although I think that there is more to it than that.

I write because I am dissatisfied.

Here me out here. It may just be me who thinks like this. In fact it probably is just me. Either way, I write because I am dissatisfied. Why fantasy? I'm dissatisfied with the mundaneness of reality. I'm dissatisfied with maths exams and assessments, and I'm dissatisfied that dragons don't exist in the real world. Seriously. I write to escape the world that I wish had dragons and Allomancy (I've thought this through and I'd like to be a soother).

I'm dissatisfied with some of my friendships. I hate that I'm so introverted that I push people away and I'm dissatisfied that I don't feel close to people anymore. It's not anyone else fault rather than my own, but that dissatisfaction is still there. I think that that is why friendship is a key theme in my book. There is a beautiful quote from Sarah J Maas' Throne of Glass series. Her dearest friends are characters in books. I do have friends but I just don't have that closeness that Harry, Ron and Hermione do, and I've never said 'to whatever end' like Rowan and Aelin did. I hope I don't sound completely tragic when I say that I do feel a closeness to my own characters. Not in an imaginary friend kind of way, but more so that I just care for them. Genuinely.

I'm dissatisfied with some of the things I read. Again, here me out. I read more good thinks than bad and I'm not saying that what I write will be better than anyone else because it won't be, but what I'm saying is that I'm fed up with a lot of tropes I see in the books that I don't like. Instalove. Save the girl instead of save the world. Vampires who sparkle.

Some of my ideas may come from dissatisfaction, but other ideas come from simple and beautiful love. I love how the trees look when it snows and their branches hang over the road you're driving on. I love that feeling that you get when you talk to someone who just understands you. I love the way that a good book can make me fall in love with places and people that only exist inside people's minds.

We can list all the things that we're dissatisfied with and I'm sure that we'll come up with an extensive list, but I think that true and honest writing comes from the things we love.

Libraries were full of ideas -- perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons. - Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas