Why do you write?

Many people always ask me why I write and it's such a difficult question to answer.  

I could just leave it at 'I write because I love it,' but that never seems like a good enough answer.  Writing is hard, many people think that writers just sit down, let the words flow and Hey presto! you have an instant book.  

It's not quite that simple.

For me writing is about an idea that buzzes around my brain, pestering me like an annoying fly, it takes hold and threatens to overwhelm.  I have this happen at the most inopportune times, whilst I'm talking on the phone, as I'm trying to go to sleep or whilst out with friends.  I spend hours wondering what I can possibly do with this one little idea, how can I even begin to make an entire book out of it?

Suddenly when I least expect it the story blossoms, I scribble in my notebook or send my fingers flying across the keyboard, and all of a sudden the characters come alive and take on a will of their own, the plot shows itself and begins to grow and a (long) while later, I finally have a story. 

It doesn't just stop there though.  I write about specific places, with historic themes and archaeological facts running through the story, I have to fact check and research like mad.  Once I've a completed draft, I then have to re-write, check, edit, and repeat a number of times before it gets to my editor who will then repeat the whole process.

All of this can take months of hard work, and determination.  At times (like today) your motivation leaves you for dust and you spend the day feeling annoyed because you should be working but can't.  There are other days where you sit at your desk and nine hours later you have to literally tear yourself away from the keyboard.

So, I hear you ask.  Why do you write Chrissie?

Well the answer is simple.  I do write because I love it, but I also write because I'm a creative person that needs to get all the ideas that buzz around my head out of my system.  I write because because I enjoy being immersed in what I write about, the history, being absorbed in another Country and it's culture or being part of an archaeological site.  My characters become like friends, I get mad at them when they don't do the right thing, I get sad when something bad happens to them, and share their joy when good things happen.

Most of all though, I just feel I need to share.  I want to entertain and despite it sometimes being a long drawn out process I love what I do every single day, even the non motivated ones like today!