I could tell you I’m mildly interested about writing. But that would be an understatement. If I’m really honest, I’d have to admit I’m passionate about writing! I love to write!

There is almost nothing I like better to do than sit down in front of my laptop and type away at a new story. Or a blog post. Or even a grocery list!

Words are awesome!

Words have captivated me for as long as I can remember. For much of my life, I kept a journal (which is way more interesting-sounding than a diary!), I scribbled out plays and stories in elementary school, and I took as many short story, technical writing, and composition classes in college that I could squeeze in.

Now I’ve written 2 3/4 novels, and my brain is teeming with a zillion other ideas.

So what’s with my fascination with words? Why do I love to write so much?

Well, since you asked 😉

#1 Writing takes me to a magical place

Remember those old Calgon commercials? The one where a woman is trying to make dinner, and the phone rings, a houseplant gets knocked to the ground, the dog barks, and the pot boils over? She puts her hands to her head and says melodramatically, “Calgon, take me away!” Next minute, she’s blissfully soaking in a tub full of bubbles.

While I don’t want to escape from my ‘real life’ (I like making dinner!), something extraordinary happens when I tap on my keyboard: I’m transported to a faraway land full of endless possibilities.

I  create scenarios for my characters, develop their personalities and quirks, and choose how they react to challenges (though, truth be told, any writer will tell you our characters sometimes have minds of their own and aren’t as cooperative as we’d like them to be!)

It’s a lot of fun to set an impossible problem for a hero or heroine to face and then watch them rise to the occasion.

I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose.

Stephen King

It’s so satisfying to close up a ginormous plot-hole, edit an ungainly sentence (or paragraph or chapter!) into a thing of grace and beauty, and experience that ah-ha moment when the corner you’ve written your hero or heroine into suddenly becomes a wide-open space with a clear and purposeful direction.

I tell you, story-telling is magical!

#2 I get to share crazy ideas when I’m writing

Yes, it’s true. I have some interesting (some may say crazy!) ideas about life and friendship and identity and purpose. What better way to indoctrinate encourage the world than to put those thoughts and ideas into stories to share?

When people–especially young adults as that’s my genre–read the things I’ve written, I want them to come away believing their life has meaning, that they are valuable, and there is always hope! Isn’t that a worthy goal and a good reason to write?

There are a lot of people who are working (be it by writing or preaching or painting or dancing!) to make this world a more love-soaked place. And I’m thrilled to be a part of it.

#3 I couldn’t stop writing if I tried

Okay, maybe this one is a bit of a cheat. But I don’t know how else to explain it. The last crazy reason I love to write is because I love to write. Writing is in my blood, in my soul. Writing pulls deeply at me, even when I sleep. I literally dream about writing.

Sometimes I think about putting the words down, ignoring the stories, not writing. And my throat closes, my mind panics, and I have a mini freak-out and consume copious amounts of dark chocolate. After I recover from the foolishness–the silly maybe-I’ll-stop-writing bit, not the consuming-dark-chocolate bit–I go back to, you guessed it, writing.

I believe we all have purposes for our life, things we’re meant to do. And while writing is not the thing I’m meant to do, it is one of them.

So thanks for hanging in there with me and visiting my brand new website. Hope to see you around more often.

What do you love to do?

And why? Share with me in the comment section below

About Jebraun Clifford

Jebraun always wanted to step through a door into an imaginary kingdom, so it’s no surprise she now calls Middle Earth home. Too short to be an elf and too tall to be a Hobbit, she lives in a gorgeous town smack-dab in the centre of New Zealand’s North Island filled with thermal activity, stunning lakes, and enough Redwood trees to make her Californian heart swoon. Her unpublished YA fantasy, The Two Queens of Kyrie, won both the American Christian Fiction Writer’s 2015 First Impressions contest and their 2016 Genesis contest in the YA category. She loves coffee, tree ferns, dark chocolate, and Jesus, and harbours a secret penchant for British spelling.

Sign up for my newsletter here