When #Ingramspark asked writers to write on #whyIpublish, I knew this is a topic I never shared.
I have been writing since 2014. Before that, I wrote only prescriptions. Writing, blogging all this, was not a part of my dream growing up. I liked to draw and once got a prize for the only poetry I wrote in school. It was in Moral science class, and I can honestly say, I have no memory of what I wrote.
But now I know why I write. It calms the incessant chattering in my brain. Don’t worry, the chatter is not something scary. The chatter is the thoughts, stories, ideas that help me write every day when I have no time to wait for the elusive muse. I even wrote a book about How to walk, write, garden, your way to a healthy life.
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How is the Health of the Nation: The report is an eye-opener!
But publishing?
What exactly is publishing?
When you make your writing or creative content available for people to read online offline for free or paid in any form, that’s sort of publishing
So #WhyIpublish is a post I need to write, right?
10 Reasons #WhyIpublish
#1 If I wrote just for me, I would not publish. I started publishing because it was a way to give back. Maybe make a difference without the constraint of time-space, geographies. Share what I know and experience both personal and professional life.
Many teachers helped me reach where I am today. Circumstances often challenge even the faint-hearted. Online publishing allows me to help more people every day than I could do in person. A salute to the world wide web and the creators who made it available to the world.
#2 Fight misinformation and disinformation
In Seth Godin’s This is marketing, he talks about why it’s important to share real stories and market it well. Because if I don’t, someone with misinformation is causing chaos. To share the truth as I know it, from my experience and expertise, is the driving force that keeps me publishing. It’s an ethical obligation that I must share awareness about the right information. Sometimes even one lone voice of dissent is all it takes to make a difference. Other times it may not be enough. My goal is to try. What happens is destiny.
Karma, that’s what Krishna says too in Geeta.
The meaning of Karma is in the intention. The intention behind the action is what matters.
Lord Krishn quote
#3 Education is the greatest gift of all
In the Corona times, education and health are the biggest losers. A whole generation of kids and young adults are now studying online. When I share what I know, I am educating. That’s another reason I started.
#4 My laptop is my publishing friend
Self-publishing has broken barriers, and in COVID times, it shows a strange power. Even when every other industry is adapting. Online self-publishing goes on. I write, publish, share on social media this part of my life is unchanged in all this drama.
Every other part is now unrecognizable, but desktop publishing found new wings.
#5 It helped me earn in many ways—none of which I had any idea about before I started. So getting started is half the battle won. Self-publishing has given me the confidence to try more new things as an early adapter. I realized I like trying stuff if it’s creative and makes a difference to someone like me.
#6 I am doing this for my daughter.
My daughter is young, and she enjoys playing, drawing, crafting, reading, and writing. Every day she makes up new stories, songs, and poems to tell me. I want her to one day know I wrote too. I want to one day write stories that she will read! I want her to find little bits of me in everything I am writing, and she will find them one day.
#7 It gives me a sense of purpose in these trying times.
That I wrote even during COVID2020 when the world was falling to its knees. When things look gloomy, and it seems there’s no end to the Corona misery, writing and publishing help me. Staying hopeful and keeping the thread of sanity clutched firmly in my hands. The turmoil of 2020 is tolerable because of what I do with the words on my screen.
# 8 It’s my chance of recording what’s happening in our times. 2020 is going to be etched in stone in everyone’s memory in different ways. Publishing allows me to share my version of it.
#9 It helps me stay focussed on getting better. Writing is a journey. It’s done in solitude but on publishing , it’s shared with everyone.
#10 Then there’s one more reason. It makes me happy. That is my rocket fuel. Who doesn’t like feeling happy? In Corona times, thats the stuff which boosts endorphins, and you can never have too much of that.
Do you publish ?Let me know why you publish in the comments below.