Ah, do you have an urge to write things down too?
It happens as a result of reading I think at first.
You enjoy the collection of your thoughts and then the routine of it catches on.
This compulsion builds with time.
You find more and more things interesting in a way you could not have seen before (and few others will understand).
If you can find a way to keep going at this point, you have the opportunity to build something few others will ever have.
One day you drop the pretense and realize what happened over the years.
The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself. I suppose that it begins or does not begin in the cradle. Although I have felt compelled to write things down since I was five years old, I doubt that my daughter ever will, for she is a singularly blessed and accepting child, delighted with life exactly as life presents itself to her, unafraid to go to sleep and unafraid to wake up.
-Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem
