#PretendPanel
Insanity? Compulsion? It never occurred to me not to?

The earliest thing I remember penning for fun was in primary school. I’ve been writing on and off ever since. The ‘off’ periods always feel frustrating, like something is missing.

How did it take me so long to get a book out?

I write because the version of me who writes and the version of me who later reads and understands what I've written are not the same.

Writing is the clearest mirror I have for who I am, what I think, what I believe, and what I truly want.

I'm talking to myself. ✒️🪞

#Pretendpanel #WritingProcess

To shut the voices up for two minutes

And so I don't have to think about it anymore

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#PretendPanel: because I have always loved to tell stories. My Barbies and TY dolls had such expansive lore that I don't think I could have ever explained to anyone else. Writing is just an attempt to capture some of that imagination and get it on a page.

#writingcommunity #writesky

For instance, I would start writing more letters, would focus on making stories into personal gifts rather than for public consumption. But I would always #write. #WritingCommunity #Writers #Authors #WritingPrompts #pretendpanel

"A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity." - Franz Kafka. #pretendpanel

This is very true for me. If my future self somehow came back in time to tell me nothing everything I write would be lost in fire or to time, I would wake up tomorrow and #write. It would only change what I wrote.

Because of the people who appear in my head and yell at me until I write about them. Because I want to live in lots of places all at once. Because I love reading, and writing feels like a natural extension of that for me. Because of how people connect with and through stories.

🏷️ #PretendPanel

#pretendpanel
I'm my queer characters' scribe, and they pull me on their adventure. Writing is life blood, it's obsession, a vital force, I can't live without it. It's raging lava and love, it's everything and more.I don't need a reason to write, it lives deep inside of me, it's embedded everywhere.

#PretendPanel Oct 2: I like telling stories & it's what I'm good at. I could try to come up with a more sophisticated answer, but that's the core of it. I like playing with language. I like coming up with worlds & characters & playing out scenarios in my head. And I've developed the right skillset.

#PretendPanel because I don't know how to do anything else.

Okay fr it's one of those things that brings me genuine enjoyment, even when it's difficult. I am a vast font of inspiration, and my only regret is that I do not have time to write all my ideas :')

#WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts

#PretendPanel Because I want to tell stories and give people strength and confidence with them. And when I don't write, I feel like something's missing. Same with art.

If I can make people feel seen and lift people up with my storytelling-- in any medium-- then I'm doing what I feel called to do.

I just do. I've been writing/storytelling since I was 3 and telling my mother stories that she typed up on her computer. Asking me why I write is like asking me why I breathe.

(I know that sounds pretentious af, but if I wasn't allowed to write, I'd go crazy in days probably...)

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#pretendpanel Not to get all existential, but for me, writing is one of those things that makes life worth living ❤️
Telling stories is a passion of mine. Always has been, always will be.

#Pretendpanel

My pat response is usually "It gives the ghosts in my head something to do."

But yeah. It gives my maladaptive daydreaming an outlet.

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I write mostly because it's fun and provides community through the writing circles I'm part of. It's also force of habit; not writing becomes uncomfortable if it goes on for long enough.

I always tell people that if they can live without writing they should. It has to be something you're driven to do, I think. I can go for a while without writing more than a few bits and pieces until the need builds up--it feels like physical pressure--and I *have* to write.

#pretendpanel