The Call of the Pen: Embracing Writing as Your Life’s Purpose

A chosen path or a divine calling?

We like to think we make decisions in life, but in many ways, our path is created for us. A car accident might lead us to change jobs or even where we live if we choose not to drive anymore and need to rely on public transportation. If we get a disease, we might become an advocate for a charity that we never dreamed of supporting. I met a woman once whose son got sick with Leukemia, and she became the largest fundraiser and recruiter for the Leukemia Society, while her husband ran marathons to raise money for the same organization.

So, life challenges, wars, pandemics, as well as positive events like a new child, a marriage, or a promotion at work, can send our lives in a new direction. We didn’t choose that path, but it became ours regardless.

I tend to think of writing as being in the same realm as these unexpected and unchangeable events. I don’t think we choose writing as much as it chooses us.

Honestly, who in their right mind would choose to spend hours in front of a computer, struggling to think of things to say, creating something out of nothing? Who would choose to give up events with their family, other fun activities, to be alone with characters who do not exist? Who would choose to make so little money that buying a cup of coffee eats up the royalties you make in a week as a published author? Only those who write because they don’t have a choice, because they’ve been called to be writers.

The decision to write

I don’t remember when I decided to “become a writer.” This is a question authors are often asked in interviews. And so often, writers will say, “I’ve always wanted to write.”

Some loved to read books and decided they’d like to try to write one or that they could do a better job than some of the published authors on the bookstore shelves. Others have always written in journals or enjoyed writing letters or found that the school assignments they enjoyed most were always the ones where they could be creative and write a story, an essay, or research topics of interest.

It was an internal drive.

The decision to write, therefore, wasn’t really a decision at all, but an acceptance of a gift.

We don’t really decide to write, but realize we have to write because we feel good when we do it; we feel happy, satisfied, or complete. It’s a deep meditation. It’s a release of emotions and thoughts and a freeing of what is inside us. It’s almost as if our creative spirit has been absorbing or downloading ideas and they become too much to hold inside and we have to release them into a writing project.

Accepting or rejecting the calling

The decision we ultimately make then is not to become a writer, but to accept this calling or to reject it.

Neither one will bring us more peace or less stress.

Accepting it means we become the person who sits in front of a computer for hours alone, creating stories, struggling with words, pushing our thoughts out of our minds, and vulnerably sharing them with others. It can mean moodiness. It can mean passion. I can mean loneliness.

Not accepting our calling can mean unhappiness and feeling like something is missing from our lives. It can mean searching elsewhere for that fulfillment and not finding it anywhere (unless it gets channeled into some other creative act). It can mean failure to reach our destined path.

Deciding to accept the calling seems like a no-brainer to me because even if being a writer is hard work and can be frustrating for all the reasons mentioned, writing brings the writer true happiness and a feeling of fulfilling their life purpose.

Once the decision has been made

Embracing our calling is freeing, but it means we must really dedicate ourselves to the profession of writing. Even if it is not our full-time job, we must make time daily and provide room in our lives for this creative outlet.

We must learn to do it well. Just because we have an innate desire to write and to create doesn’t mean that we know how to do it well.

· Study the art of writing

· Read constantly and deeply

· Practice daily

· Share your writing and revise

Why me?

I used to ask this question a lot. Why me? Why do I think I have something to say? Why did I choose to write? Why didn’t I choose something more valuable? Creating stories seems self-indulgent, and really, kind of worthless.

But once I realized that I didn’t really choose this at all, I came to accept my fate. I no more chose to be a writer than I chose to be a woman or Latina or to have brown eyes. It’s just who I am. Being a writer is the same; I didn’t choose it, and I can’t remember when I decided to “become a writer.”

I only remember loving stories from the moment my mother used to share stories orally to keep me quiet, and loving them even more when I was given books to read in school. I only remember loving to write my own stories in school. I only remember one day as I entered community college choosing a class about creative writing. I remember writing chapter one on a page for the first time because the creative writing class was more of a workshop where we all were required to write a chapter of a book and share it with our classmates — and how scary and right it felt to begin that first book.

These things simply happened, as if I was destined to follow this path. I made decisions, but did I really?

I still don’t know why me. But I’ve stopped asking and just accepted it. Writing is my calling. And I think it’s yours too.

If you’d like to support my writing career and enjoy reading fiction with a little romance, a little history, and the pursuit of success, please consider ordering my new novel, Let Us Begin.