Recently I was talking to clients who enjoy making art.

From drawing, to painting, to just creating pieces that sing to their soul and during our chat, we discussed the reasons for why we continue with our chosen craft. For the clients, their reasons ranged from escapism, to form of expression, to simply enjoying it.

Me?

I write for those reasons too. I’ve written in earlier posts how it’s also a way for me to practice empathy, a way for me to tell the stories I want to see. However another major one is that I don’t want to look back on the things that I didn’t write.

I don’t want to regret.

Sometimes I lose sight of why I love writing in the first place and lately, it’s happened again. I’ve had a tough time with my current WIP, to the point where the plagues of self-doubt had begun to creep in and I’ve lost patience with the story.

So I’m deeply grateful for the conversations I had with the clients because it brought me down memory lane. See last year when I was experiencing a bit of writer’s block, I was watching this youtube video on Les Brown, a motivational speaker.

Here’s the link.

I’ve also added the full URL at the end of this post. I highly recommend watching it. It helped me finish writing a scene that day.

For those unable to watch, one of the things Les Brown talks about is imagining being on your death bed and standing around you are the ghost of your dreams, ideas, abilities and talents given to you by life and that they’re all angry with you because you never pursued them.

I can imagine all the characters in my unwritten stories doing that to me and some of them have powers and are incredibly skilled in hand-to-hand combat. In other words, they could whoop my butt easily *shivers in fear*.

Les Brown’s talk resonated with me a lot. I’m not a stranger to the feeling of regret when it comes to the things I wish I did in life. While those decisions are what made me who I am today, they weren’t pleasant experiences and I’d rather not go through them again, at least not when it comes to my writing.

I started this blog because I didn’t want to regret it. I wrote my book because I didn’t want to regret that and now, I’m writing to bring new stories to life because I never want to look back and tell myself it’s because I didn’t give it my all.

Now I ask you the same question readers…

Why do you you write?

Was there a time when you regretted not starting a writing project? Feel free to share your stories in the comments below and as always, I will see you all in the next post.

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Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I’d like to mention that what I write about is simply a reflection of my own personal experiences.

By sharing my thoughts about the things that have motivated and inspired me as well as the people in my life, I’m hoping I could motivate and inspire others.

I’m aware that everyone’s situation is different and if what you are doing works for you, I’m really glad. Please continue doing what you’re doing.

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Sources:

*MotivationalHub – One of the Greatest Speeches Ever | Les Brown. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ4en7o8B-g

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Photo Credit: Aaron Burden on Unsplash