Why do we write? Our own Small Town Girl has asked this question of us. I was trapped on a plane in Juneau yesterday. Alaska Airlines broke something. It took an hour to fix and three hours to document. Not the kind of writing I want to be involved with in my life. I was listening to a podcast from Mur Lafferty at I Should Be Writing about this same subject. She was interviewing David Drake and he spent most of the time asking Murr why she wanted to be a writer. It was interesting, but I'm not sure it provided any new insights for my own efforts.
Growing up in rural New Mexico and working for the Forest Service, writing was the least of my concerns. Returning to school later in life opened a window for me into the world of education. It seemed that I kept writing more and actually enjoyed it. The exercise definitely improved my professional standing and gave me the tools to be a better advocate of my thoughts and ideas. The project I'm most proud of is the effort I have participated in with the Alaska Sea Grant College Program.
A couple years ago, I finished a Masters degree in Rural Development. The program had the option of completing a thesis or conducting a related rural development project. I chose to develop an operations and maintenance handbook for harbors, with a supporting white paper on the importance of harbors to small Alaskan communities. A friend told Sea Grant about it and they decided to publish the handbook. Little did I realize the time and effort that goes into a publication. Sea Grant vetted everything presented in the book through their own experts and continued to find additional topics for me to add. The page layout and graphics they generated were amazing. I can say I've never been so thrilled to see something happen like this.
The handbook sparked other projects. The Canadian government adopted it for use in their harbors, I drafted a separate book on clean boating, the University of Alaska Southeast started working with me in developing an online harbor employee training program, and I started writing a novel. It's all great fun.
So why do we write? I'm not to an answer yet, but a lot of it centering on being able to express your thoughts and the joy you receive every once in a while when someone gets it and responds positively to your efforts. That's the gold at the end of the rainbow. What will Andrea have to say about it at Southern Expressions?
Labels: Absolute Write, Freelancing
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