by Melissa Knight

Created on: July 17, 2008

When I was a kid, I was a compulsive liar. I would tell stories that could top some of the best fairy tales ever told. I was such a liar that for the longest time, I couldn't keep a friend. It was crazy but really, the only reason I ever told the lies was because I was painfully shy, horribly nerdy and (for what seems like an agonizingly long time) not exactly attractive. For a little while at least, I was able to get people to pay attention to what I had to say. That was, of course, before they found out I was lying. Again. I was so bad, I even lost my first love to a lie. A lie that I told. He never wanted to talk to me again.

Yes, embarrassing, painful and life altering. Around the time I was at the peak of my lying career, I was discovering that I actually can write a little. I was also discovering that people wanted to read what I wrote. Not only did they want to read it, but they thought it was good! Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I could tell all the lies I wanted; huge lies, mind you, on paper and people wanted to read more!

This was nothing but a dream come true, as far as I was concerned. Not to mention how much I loved writing. I wrote in journals, notes, notebooks. I started story after story, wrote a whole pretend life in a journal, just because I could.

The writing helped me to stop lying. People still didn't listen to me, though. In fact, they didn't even talk to me. I felt like I had a trillion, million things to say, but nobody was interested in what I was talking about unless I wrote it down. In school, I would do essays or reports and get A's, always A's. I wrote little essays, poems and stories. My classmates looked at me with a new respect and when it came to writing, well, they started wanting to talk to me. It was a beginning.

Without making my personal story too long winded, writing became a habit. It became a way to communicate with people. Writing has become a way to talk to tons of people, without having to be seen. I've discovered I enjoy people. All kinds of people. I love to chat with them and hear their stories. Everyone has a story and it's fun to get people to open up and tell theirs.

Now I write for the communication value. I put things on paper for every reason from having a knowledge of situations that might make people feel better to having a story that I feel is worth telling. I write to strike emotions in others. I want to be the writer who writes something and strikes a chord in others. I want to expose the unsung heroes and tell the stories of people who otherwise would never be known. I want others to say, "I know how that character feels," or "Oh wow, I'm glad I'm not the only one who's gone through this."

It's a way to have a conversation, to share a thought, a laugh A cry. This is why I write.

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