Creative Motivation
At various points in our lives readers and writers need
motivation. Challenges in our professional and personal lives at
times make it seem as though there is no end in sight to the
aggravations we all face. We work full time jobs, are full time
Mommies and Daddies and are usually full time stressed.
Take a few moments and enjoy a bit of creative motivation......
The Therapy of Writing and Reading
By
AlTonya Washington

A while back, I ran across information that scientists actually have a name for folks like
me (folks who feel compelled to write every moment of every day) They call it
Hypergraphia ‘the overwhelming desire to write’. “My sickness has a name”, I
squeaked and then laughed. Hypergraphia is a ‘sickness’ you see, that has saved my
sanity more times than I can count.

Hypergraphia saved my sanity when I was about bored out of my mind that long ago
summer afternoon in 1994 when a notebook and pen dropped me into the world of
creating romance. It saved me from a nervous fit (several nervous fits) when I was a
brand new mommy back in 2000 with no clue what to do with the tiny man sleeping in
the crib in my bedroom. It saved me the very next year when I lost my job and was
wallowing in self pity and frustration.

Yes, writing saved me.

But what about before I discovered the joy (or condition) of Hypergraphia? Of course, I
was an avid reader and I realized that my love of reading saved me just as often and
at times that were just as important.

For me, and I suspect for many of us, reading is a joy not a chore. It carries us away
to places allowing us to see things with the mind’s eye. I was carried to remote areas
I’d not seen the likes of unless I was watching an episode of Dynasty or a Danielle
Steele miniseries on television-where the super rich and super gorgeous characters
jet-setted from one exotic locale to the next.

Books allowed me to sample gourmet dishes I couldn’t even pronounce-their flavors
bursting to life in my head.

Yes, books saved me.

Books allowed me to appreciate not only the world outside my door, but the world
inside myself. Enjoying a good book with a mug of steaming tea on a wintry day
rejuvenated so many things inside me. I was able to take stock of myself and my
surroundings and find the beauty within them.

Those moments were for me. They were my time to journey, to reflect, to return and to
take stock of what I held dear.

Wow…until I began to write this piece, I’d never thought of how essential writing and
reading have been to the very essence of who I am.
I need them to thrive.
I need them to survive.

Give them a try.