It’s a question that I’ve been asked a few times by various people, each time with a different intent behind the words. I’m sure it's a question that will pop up again in the future. Usually, I’m limited to a clipped answer in the heat of a conversation, but that doesn’t get enough of the point across. In this post, I want to go into more detail.

I want to get published because, even though I am content writing for myself, I want to be able to touch people’s lives the way other authors have touched mine. My childhood was less than perfect. That’s an understatement, but suffice it to say that reading was my first escape. I also used my art and writing to escape and express myself, but reading helped me learn to transport myself to another world away from what terrified me. Books helped pull me through some of the most difficult times of my life. They also helped me learn new things and consider concepts and ideologies I wouldn’t otherwise have discovered; many have even helped me heal and feel understood. Furthermore, reading inspired me to create my own worlds to dive into.

If I can get my work published, I might just be able to provide the same kind of escape, healing, and inspiration to others that the authors I’ve read have provided for me. I want to pay those blessings forward. Already, in the columns I published through my local newspaper, I’ve touched people’s lives. An elderly man read one of my columns (“The Beauty in Life”) and reached out to me because he’d written a beautiful poem decades earlier touching on similar subjects to the ones I covered in my article. Experiencing this commonality of thought and expression with another person I had never even met before was amazing. I felt so blessed. I would love to continue making such connections with good people.

Besides, I have so much in my head, why not share it with others? Writing is a great way for me to relieve stress and put the things that haunt, enthrall, and enrage me down on paper in engaging and creative ways. Life has given me a twisted sense of humor and a wicked imagination that others might just enjoy taking part in. My work is a cry from my soul, and I want the world to hear me. I want the world to feel my pain, my joy, my rage, my sorrow, my hope, and my despair. I want to inflict terror, joy, sorrow, and every other feeling on the spectrum of human emotion—whether that’s through my art, my poems, or my stories.

I am here, I am still alive, and the world will know it.

This blog is the next step I’m taking to ensure that happens. It’s also a means for others to shout back. I want to connect with you (my audience) so that I can answer your questions, find ways to improve, and learn about what you want to see/read more of. However, if I write or do something that resonates with you, I also want you to be able to contact me if you feel the desire to reach out. I may not be able to provide legal, financial, or professional help, but it would be wonderful to know that I made a difference. So many times, I’ve wanted to connect with authors who impacted my life and I wasn’t able to. I don’t want that to be the case for my readers.

If you have similar dreams and would like to share your progress so far or whatever is driving your efforts, go ahead and post about it in the comments—or even start your own blog and post a link to it down below if you want. One piece of closing advice I have for you is this: If you have creations of your own you want to share with the world, go for it, because if you don’t at least try, you’ll spend the rest of your life wondering what could have been.