Why I Write?

I created Tanager Writing because I have been doing freelance projects since I was in middle school and began an albeit improper, but free business of writing papers for my peers because I thought it was so much fun to have more homework! I also loved reading extra books to do creative writing assignments. Who does that, right? In all seriousness though, I love art in all of its forms! And I firmly believe ART – the written word being a part of that modality – is the most empowering tool we have to connect our emotional experiences to broader meaning and important messaging in our world. Writing is the lifeblood of my soul and I can’t live without it. Stories gives purpose to our existence and allow us to aptly situate ourselves within the effervescent and mysterious realms of this world. Writing, for whatever purpose it is done, is a way to share information, and in turn, enhance our engagement as a global community!

I believe that everyone has a story and no matter how meaningless it may appear, everyone and every story deserves to be told. That is why I write. Books. Poems. Blogs. Essays! You name it! It is something that eats away at me, leaving me frustrated and raw at times, but I am passionate about it because there is always a sense of fulfillment I gain from sharing my own experiences and exposing those of others. I want to create stories that evoke emotions and create reactions in readers. As long as I can remember, I have been creating fictional stories. I used to sit in the bathroom every Saturday and Sunday when I was a child and tell elaborate stories to my younger sister about a special clan of rubber ducks that populated the small bathroom jointly shared by me and my other two siblings. There was hardly enough room for my varied rubber duck collection, but somehow every weekend and almost every day during the summer months, my sister would sit on the bathtub and I on a closed toilet and she would beg for stories. Hours quickly passed by as I relayed the adventures of my yellow-bellied friends to my adoring younger sister. In addition to the ducks, I was very fond of alligators and even owned a plastic pair of them. As with the ducks, the alligators in my life always had a story. However, their story ran concurrently with the story of my life. For example, if I was sharing a Sunday brunch with my family, “the alligators” were eating pancakes on the roof. No one ever saw them, but I believed in their existence and worthiness so much that my entire family, including my grandmother via telephone, asked me daily, “Hey, Andrea! What are the alligators doing today?” And surprisingly, I was never without a response. My imagination never failed me as a child and I refuse to let my age hinder my imagination now.

For every story that is told, I am conflicted by the reality that there is another hidden story waiting to be revealed. In response to concern about studying English and what future career I may have, one of my collegiate professors once verified, “The world needs its storytellers” because without stories, our society risks losing valuable facets of our culture and personal ideologies.
No matter how much time I spend living, observing or interacting with the world around me, writing is a challenge, or “a cognitive warp” of sorts. The ability to fabricate an entire story in a way that is both attractive and informative for an audience is not an easy task, but in the end, writing is well worth the laborious effort. To be a writer, it is important to find out who people really are. Just what is behind those eyes? And how do they really perceive the world?

Watching words dance on the page is one of the most enlightening experiences a writer can have! As such, I want nothing more than to share in my talent and love of that experience with you so that you can chase your passions and reach your goals with as much assured confidence as possible!