Why I Write: From Spark To Strategy
The Stories We Tell Shape The Lives We Build
When I was 13, I had an English teacher called Miss Berry.
She was intelligent, cultured and kind, and deeply inspiring—the sort of teacher who never raised her voice but commanded attention with her passion alone.
She gave me permission to take writing seriously. To see it not just as a school subject, but as a calling.
She introduced me to the beauty of language and the joy of crafting sentences that sang.
She was the reason I got top marks at GCSE and A Level English, then went on to study it at University and beyond.
But the writing seed was planted even earlier—by my Great Aunt Joan.
She was a formidable, elegant woman who lived in Hampstead, the arty area of London.
Joan worked for the BBC World Service, broadcasting to South America in Spanish. She was fiercely clever and didn't suffer fools gladly.
As kids, my sister and I would visit her (on our best behaviour of course), and eat incredible spaghetti Bolognese in the Italian restaurant below her flat.
She took us to West End plays and sat us front row on the top deck of red London buses. It was magical.
The first play I ever saw - as a 9 year old - was Hiawatha at the National Theatre in 1982, written for the stage by my namesake Laurence Burns.
I still remember the cast entering one by one to bang great drums in unison.
That moment of theatre, of words brought to life with power and rhythm - has never left me. And all of that, the joy, the theatre, the words, is why I show up to write online today.
Because beneath the blog posts and sales pages, I’m still that kid in the National Theatre, watching stories come alive.
It’s this: I don’t write because I have to. I write because I love the form. I respect the craft.
Whether it’s my latest screenplay, poem, or a client sales page—I’m always chasing that sense of resonance Miss Berry showed me was possible.
But passion isn’t enough.
We’ve still got to eat. And that means selling with our words.
So I’ve learned how to balance the art with the ask—to write for love and livelihood.
That’s what building an online content business demands: telling your stories, honouring your voice and learning how to package it to serve others.
If you want to build a content business that pays and stays true to your voice, subscribe to The Weekday Writer:
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