I can’t say that I’ve always wanted to write a book. I’ve always loved books. Since I was a young child, I’ve read anything I could get my hands on. First, I loved books about animals. As I got older, I started liking fantasy and darker fiction. After that, I fell in love with urban fantasy and dystopian. I’ll still read almost anything you put in front of me and as long as the writing is compelling, the characters are interesting, and the plot is spell-binding, you’ve got me hooked.

College was the first time I decided that I wanted to write what I so often read. English was always my best and easiest subject but for some reason before college, I never thought to take my ability to write and my love of reading to its full conclusion. Now that I have, it’s amazing how many reasons I’ve found to write a book. And since my goal is to complete my first novel before I’m thirty—so what if there’s less than a year to go—I’ve compiled my thirty reasons to write a book.

  1. Only you can tell your story.
  2. That book you’ve always wanted to read, yeah, you can write that.
  3. It will help remove the little voices in your head. Or, it will make those voices louder. It’s a toss up.
  4. Your name in print. Enough said.
  5. You get to say, “I’m an author.”
  6. You can obliterate your least-liked and most-hated real-life individuals.
  7. You can immortalize your favorite family and friends.
  8. It’s possible to litter inside jokes throughout your story that only you will get and enjoy.
  9. It will be impossible to feel anything but the most amazing sense of accomplishment.
  10. You’ll join a special club of individuals who are all equally thrilled to have written books.
  11. What else do you have to do with every weekend, evening after work, and NaNoWriMo?
  12. Because editing is the most fun that anyone could ever have and you don’t want to miss out.
  13. Rejection makes you stronger.
  14. Who doesn’t love reading book reviews on Amazon, especially when they’re about your book?
  15. It lets you stay inside the world in your head and explore it in more detail.
  16. It’s cheaper than therapy sessions.
  17. That first and hundredth time someone tells you, “I’ve read your book. It’s amazing.”
  18. There are never enough books to read.
  19. Your career will never go out of style.
  20. You’ll never run out of material.
  21. Long after you’re gone, your words will still be able to impact people.
  22. To bring to life dreams—yours and others.
  23. You can do it from anywhere, at any time, as long as you have a computer or a pen and paper.
  24. Never will you have another opportunity to make a ton of people incredibly happy.
  25. Never will have you another opportunity to make a ton of people incredibly angry.
  26. Someone is waiting for the book that you haven’t written yet.
  27. There’s no better way to leave a piece of yourself behind.
  28. You get to create alternate universes where anything is possible.
  29. Your book will touch someone’s life.
  30. There is not a single reason NOT to write a book.