A Single Word

    Last week I found out there is a word for what I do.  I don’t remember where I read about the word, but it has stuck with me all week as its own private revelation.

    I write to learn.  I write to find out what I think.  I write to give expression to the little bursts of inspiration that come to me at sundry times.  I write to voice spiritual subtleties that only open up to me as I write.

    For years in composition classes, I taught the values of planning and organizing, of writing geared to specific assignments and meeting specific requirements.  I’d like to think that all that teaching drilled some underlying structure into my own writing that creates some sense and form when I am exploring an initial burst of creative insight.  Because I don’t think about rules anymore—instead, I often break them.  I like to follow sound and meaning, get wrapped up in the flow of words and the poetry of words.

    Writing is a type of revelation in which I discover what I cannot find in any other way.  There is a single word that captures all 212 words on this page:  heuristic.  It’s nice to finally know what I am doing here at the keyboard.