Why do you want to write? First, I want to differentiate between just wanting to write and needing to write. The former is purely an urge. It may die out in a day or two. The latter is a necessity. It is the reason (or reasons) for doing it that makes it more enduring. The following are some reasons why I need to write. Maybe some of them will help you identify why you need to write.

I do it to gain a different perspective. And why do I want to gain a different perspective? It would solve a problem. What type of problem? You may ask. All types: theoretical, practical, and life event problems. The other reason I write is to disseminate my findings since I am also a researcher.

Solving Practical Problems

Writing is helpful in dealing with practical problems. I am an inventor and a researcher. When I come across an objective problem, sometimes I would tinker with it for weeks without making progress; but if I sit down and write about the problem, I may get different ideas. By writing, I am reflecting on the issue to prompt my imagination. Imagination has a place in research when analyzing the difficulty. It allows creativity to come into play. According to Anderson et al.(2001), creativity is the highest form of knowledge. It is the highest degree of complexity in the cognitive process dimension. The order of complexity are as follows: creating, evaluating, analyzing, applying, understanding, and remembering.

Words are ideas. When you are writing, you are rearranging them and putting them together in different ways. According to Lonergan (1957), knowledge does not start with sense experience. The objects of sense experience are in disarray. They need to be sorted out. It is like being confronted with several clues from the scene of a crime. They need to be rearranged before you can gain insight. It is insight that promotes understanding, and understanding allows it to advance to knowledge. You are admitting it to become knowledge by making a judgement. You either accept it as part of your overall knowledge, or you can discard it and go back to the rearrangement process. Understanding contributes to knowledge when it provides meaning.

The writing of my latest book on dealing with myopia did not start when I perfected the prototype. It started when I was bogged down with problems on the design, selecting the right material, determining the wearing schedule, etc.

Developing a Theory

Writing also helps me to develop a theory. Suppose my prototype works. Now I have to come up with a theory why it works.

“Why do you want to come up with such a theory?” You may ask. “It is working, isn’t it?”

Yes, it works, but I need a theory for the possibility of improving it. For example, it may seem to work, but it may only work partially. That was the outcome of my latest invention. There was a lot of room for improvement. I would not have realized it if I had not come up with a theory.

Life Event Problems

The difference between a life event problem and a psychological problem is that at the early stage, the former has not set in yet to cement the adverse moods associated with it to make it more enduring. Nevertheless, it is nagging away at you in the short term.

In this case, you are writing to solve something different from an objective problem such as trying to troubleshoot the decline in the performance of your vehicle. Instead, you are dealing with something that is affecting your quality of life. For example, you are out of work, and you are trying to make ends meet.

Again, writing about it gives you a different perspective. Cost cutting is the first line of defence when cash ceases to come in. When I wrote down my budget, it involved monitoring my spending. I was amazed at the heap of receipts I had collected at the end of the month. When I visualized it on paper in addition to the numbers, I realized how wasteful I was. It helped regulate my spending.

To Communicate

Finally, I write to disseminate my findings. The goal of my research is to assist my patients with myopia which is becoming a global epidemic. But I will not be around forever; so in the future, I cannot help someone personally. The printed word, however, has a more lasting effect. My colleagues can learn about what I did by reading my books and apply the same procedure to help others.

They may also extend the research and improve on my findings. In turn, they may also write about the outcome of their research; but they also will not be around forever. Their colleagues can review what they wrote and continue the treatment, and they would also come across ways to improve on their findings. They would write about it in their case reports, and so on. This type of research is called action research. The research is ongoing. All I did was initiate the research (McNiff, 2017)

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