People question why I enjoy writing. The answer is complex, so I will do my best to simplify it. I like writing because it gives me a voice.

People ask what types of things I like to write about. The answer is complex, so I will do my best to simplify it. I don’t write fiction. I write true pieces, ones that carry my opinions and beliefs.

People ask who I am writing for. The answer is complex, so I will do my best to simplify it. I write primarily for myself. I write for the people that are inspired by what I have to say, but I don’t know exactly who that is all the time.

People ask a lot of questions. Curiosity is an essential part of human nature. People don’t want my complex, passionate answers, they want short and sweet. We have short attention spans and, as a writer, it is my duty not to lose the focus of my audience. So we settle.

We settle for stories missing pieces. I omit the details that aren’t absolutely necessary, a process that is painstakingly difficult. Who’s to say what is important and what is not? The weather doesn’t seem important until it is the reason the protagonist is in a bad mood to begin with. The bad mood that spirals and transcends into the entirety of the plot. So who’s to write out the weather?

I want people to be aware that any time they are reading any piece of literature, there is more to it than the words that lie before them. There are many things that have been left unsaid for the sake of brevity. My brain is a complex puzzle to solve, but I give you the simplified version. Not because you aren’t smart enough to handle it, rather because our society begged for oversimplification, and this is the result.

We don’t want to, and I quote, “waste our time”. It’s funny that reading excessive works is considered a “waste of time” when we spend hours watching videos on the internet. We spend hours watching a TV show that caters to the population of visually and auditorily stimulated. If we miss a detail, so what? It will be explained to us later. We shouldn’t have to do the work ourselves, right?

This is a large problem we face today. We don’t want to put in work to be entertained, or often to learn anymore. We have a sea of information at our fingertips, we must only learn the right ways to run a Google Search. Reading longer works has become a chore.

Our brains need further stimulation, beyond screaming visuals. Our brains require comprehending in order to stay sharp. It wouldn’t hurt to read a longer work and turn off the TV. We are transforming into a society that doesn’t value strengthening cognitive processes.

Try not to beg for the simple versions of everything. Listen to the complex answers to the questions you pose.

If I’m giving way to the complex answer to why I enjoy writing, I don’t know exactly what to say. Sometimes, I’m not sure why I love it so much. It has something to do with the fact that I use it as an emotional release. At other moments, it shares my opinions with a specific audience. I can use my pieces to make people smile, or to make them think. I can rile people up about a cause that I am passionate about by posing the proper facts, thus inducing action.

Writing offers me confidence. My written works speak louder than my vocal chords can. To top it off, it just seems like an instinct. When I take a hiatus from journaling, I feel off. I write because I am.

There is an equally complex answer to every question. Force yourself to understand deeper meanings on occasion. There is such thing as gaudy and repetitive, and something to be said about those who can use less words to evoke the same feeling. But don't brush something to the side because it seems like a difficult read at first glance. Challenge yourself to find and understand meaning in complexity.