Reader Response on “Why Do You Write?” by Margaret Atwood

            I loved this snippet by Atwood. One of her first lines, that writing is “acquired through the apprentice system” and that your teacher is “alive” or “dead” was so intriguing because I don’t usually consider writing a collective entity or one that is part of a community. I always look at writing as me and what I put on a page. Other people and books I’ve read are just external factors. But it’s true that the people you read and the books you digest are a part of your writing. I know I’ve read something that has affected my writing to the point of my story being completely different than it would have been if I hadn’t. When she talks about a “community of storytellers that stretches back through time to the beginning of human society”, I imagined a timeline of people sitting at their desk with pens, pencils, computers writing away. To think of writing as a “craft” and a “profession” is something worth noting because it doesn’t get the credit it deserves. Most people are into technology, science, business, but writing isn’t easy and even I forget that.

            I was impressed how Atwood puts the reader in a macrocosm of writers and then zooms in on the individual place that they belong. Her advice to speak for the group that is “feeling the booty” is on point because we tend to conform to what is acceptable and are discouraged to speak about something if it goes against the rest of society, even if we are becoming more liberal. My favorite line is “the billboard awaits you, but if you succumb to its temptations you’ll end up two-dimensional.” What a profound way to inspire someone to be unique and out of the box. This is the kind of piece that should be read aloud because each sentence carries weight.