Creative Writing - from whence comes this urge?

Welcome to Creative Writing - From whence cometh this urge?

Why is it that so many of us find ourselves writing on Hubpages? Is it because we know we can write just about anything, any subject of our choice and, providing it’s not what the Hub people euthenistically call ‘Adult’ content, we can get away with it. Nobody is going to say ‘No.’ No editorially-oriented proof-reader is going to humiliate us with their criticisms, and no non-caring book or magazine editor is going to give us the thumbs down. No rejections slips here. We are free to write virtually what we like, how we like and when we write.

I like Hubpages. And apparently 80,000 -plus others do too, according to the Hub people’s blurb; something which I read for the first time only today after being allowed to post well over one hundred Hubs on their site. Is it any wonder they’re so popular. You write something, post it, and people come back to you saying, “Good Hub, mate.” Or, to use the very over used vernacular to describe something not far above mediocre: “Awesome!” Yes, and along with an exclamation mark or three. No wonder we all love it so. All praise, virtually no condemnation. All priase Hubpages, I say.

A few days ago I noticed all these logos and icons – call them what you may – appearing on my Profile Page. Wow! Someone has noticed (okay, we know it’s via an previously written and posted computer program) that I’ve put on a hundred Hubs and I’m told: “Great job, Tom. You’ve posted a hundred.” We all love praise, so why wouldn’t we love this sort of thing? No, I’m not being cynical. These things work.

When I sat down at my PC this morning to write this I was intending to write about writers: why we write; what urges us to do so. It is all to do with real communications, I think, one soul reaching out to touch another. We don’t do much of that in our society. People rarely touch each other in that way, no not even lovers. As an old guy who’s been married for over fifty years – and looking at the Western World’s divorce rate of around 50% I can safely say this – even people who have long-lasting relationships often fall short of this wonderful ‘soul-to-soul communication we all long for. It is is rare indeed.

So writing gives us a chance to pour out our souls , our innermost feelings - if we’re game enough - to readers who will read us and, in all likelihood, not disparage what we say; may even emphasize with it; get back to us with feedback; become one of our ‘followers’ even. Were to meet such people face-to-face we might blush with embarrassment. But when we read their stuff and they read ours we are getting as close as we can , it seems, to the sort of communication, the ‘touching of beings’ we seek.

So – what a conjoining word – so I’m grateful to the Hubpage people, and to all those many contributors who are making this site so rewarding to belong to. I will continue to both read and write here, as I hope you too, dear reader, will do the same. May it reward you in all the ways you would like to be rewarded.

I hope you enjoyed Creative Writing - from whence cometh this urge. And yes, I like Hubpages

Keep smiling

Tom