Why Do you write?
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Othermoose
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If I kill people with a pen I won't have to kill them with a knife.
greenmountaineer
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Interesting excerpt from Garrison Keillor's "Writer's Almanac:"
"It’s the birthday of British poet, author, and playwright W.H. Auden, born Wystan Hugh Auden in York, England (1907). Auden once said, “A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.” As a child, he read voraciously, especially Emily Dickinson and William Blake. By 13, he was writing his own poems, mostly imitations of 19th-century Romantic poets like William Wordsworth."
"It’s the birthday of British poet, author, and playwright W.H. Auden, born Wystan Hugh Auden in York, England (1907). Auden once said, “A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.” As a child, he read voraciously, especially Emily Dickinson and William Blake. By 13, he was writing his own poems, mostly imitations of 19th-century Romantic poets like William Wordsworth."
FelicityJohns
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I see shadows of my own journey in each of your 'Making of a Writer' stories. It's interesting how similar the ingredients can be, and how varied the outcome while all still being Writers.
The voracious reading. The painting/drawing and branching out into other creative areas, from imaginative to tactile. The influence of parents. The trials that push us inward.
I think to be a writer, that inward thing is important. I spent many years thinking I wrote because I was a coward and couldn't find the strength or voice to speak what was on my mind. So I studied it in private, and wrote it in private. That is hard work. And not everyone can or will do it.
It left me with a self-awareness that is both enlightening and terrifying at times. There are times I'd really like to drop the curtain and ignore what's going on in there. But I've learned and am learning so much.
I write because it is an exorcism, an exploration, a safe place, a scary place, it is fun, challenging and effortless. It's a discipline as well as an impulse. I write to discover myself, to entertain others, to leave something behind. Those who know me in real life would never suspect the level of self-truth buried in my stories. So in a sense, it is a safe place to be true to myself.
The voracious reading. The painting/drawing and branching out into other creative areas, from imaginative to tactile. The influence of parents. The trials that push us inward.
I think to be a writer, that inward thing is important. I spent many years thinking I wrote because I was a coward and couldn't find the strength or voice to speak what was on my mind. So I studied it in private, and wrote it in private. That is hard work. And not everyone can or will do it.
It left me with a self-awareness that is both enlightening and terrifying at times. There are times I'd really like to drop the curtain and ignore what's going on in there. But I've learned and am learning so much.
I write because it is an exorcism, an exploration, a safe place, a scary place, it is fun, challenging and effortless. It's a discipline as well as an impulse. I write to discover myself, to entertain others, to leave something behind. Those who know me in real life would never suspect the level of self-truth buried in my stories. So in a sense, it is a safe place to be true to myself.
FelicityJohns
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Giving a great thread a little bump...
greenmountaineer
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Giving a great thread a little bump...
I enjoyed reading your earlier post, Felicity; very poignant.
FelicityJohns
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ishtat
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I was born to entirely English parents on a farm near the border with Wales. My Mother didn't like small children too much - tho' she had five of us! Fortunately my parents had sufficient resources that they could employ a full time nanny. Mrs Jones was an elderly Welsh speaker who almost never read stories but told them and acted them out. They were all in her head and included every kind of fantastic fairy and folk tale imaginable.
At five I started school without being able to speak a word of my own language, English, but being pretty good in pre-school Welsh. But above all, and I did not know it then, Mrs Jones had instilled in me, not just a love of words but an understanding of what she called 'the song of words.' Even today, if I can find the right 'rhythm' for a piece it seems to come quite quickly and easily. I can write a lot in my head, edit it, chop and change this and that - precious little ends up on paper but the love affair with Mrs Jones 'song of words' is forever.
At five I started school without being able to speak a word of my own language, English, but being pretty good in pre-school Welsh. But above all, and I did not know it then, Mrs Jones had instilled in me, not just a love of words but an understanding of what she called 'the song of words.' Even today, if I can find the right 'rhythm' for a piece it seems to come quite quickly and easily. I can write a lot in my head, edit it, chop and change this and that - precious little ends up on paper but the love affair with Mrs Jones 'song of words' is forever.
wakingDown
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I just saw this thread, and thought I would toss in my reasons. This may run on a bit, so, sorry about that.
I was reading before I started school (according to my mom; I don't remember that far back. My memory is destroyed, and a lot of stuff back there is just gone), and as long as I can remember, I've loved reading.
My dad was always big into reading, and always had a mountain of books around the house. Not a lot of stuff that kids should be reading, really, but that didn't stop me from digging through the bookcases and picking out books that looked interesting to me. By the time high school rolled around, I was a huge fan of Koontz, Crichton, King (man oh man, was I ever a nut for ol' Steve, especially his damnable Dark Tower), Brian Jacques, Piers Anthony, Douglas Adams, and most Marvel comic books.
I started getting into trouble regularly around 8th grade; I stopped doing homework (why do the stuff we just learned in class again at home? I know this crap, we just went over it. I'm not doing it again, that's stupid, I got it), I started drawing on any piece of paper given to me in class instead of writing answers in the blanks (if you don't want a page filled with axe-wielding barbarians attacking tanks and gunslingers fighting off demons and big titted female goblins with flamethrowers, then you probably shouldn't have given me a piece of paper with so much empty space and wide margins on the sides), and I started writing my own fantasy and sci-fi stories in notebooks that were intended for taking notes in class. I was getting into trouble for other stuff as well, but not as much; I learned rather quickly when it came to not getting caught for a lot of the crap I pulled. The drawing and the writing though, I saw as minor. I didn't care if the teacher saw me doing it. I was an asshole.
I never intended for anyone to read the stories I wrote; I was just writing for me, to entertain myself. It was a lot like my drawing in that regard. The stories that came about formed along the same lines, as well. Cyborg knights fighting zombified dragon wizards; necromancers raising armies of dinosaur skeletons that the US Army had to take down with tanks and jets; crap like that.
These days, I write less outlandish stuff when I focus on fiction, but I still like to sail through the absurd at times with tales of high adventure and two-fisted action. The stuff that I post here; it's easily the tamest, most grounded of my writing. Nothing else that I write would be posted, as a lot of it would be barred due to content (there's a lot of 'coming of age' adventure type of stories about groups of friends having grand and perilous adventures that test their resolve, their bonds as friends, and their physical fortitude and whatnot; a lot of it contains a bunch of violence and stuff involving teenagers that the site would give a big ass 'NOOOOPE' on), but it's all writing for the same reasons, really, no matter the subject matter; same with the poetry when I gave it a shot, sort of: I started to write to entertain myself, and it worked. I get a kick out of it; always have, and I suspect I always will. Where before I never would have considered showing my works to anyone else, now I enjoy doing so. It's another reason that I write as I do these days: To entertain others. Seeing the feedback that I have since I started posting stories and poems here, I've seen that the 'stupid little stories' (as I'd always thought of them) that I write can do for others what they do for me; namely, give a little break from the real world and provide a simple escape into a fantasy world where things just work out better. A new reason that has developed in the last decade or so of my writing has been catharsis. My writing has taken on a venting aspect that has been a boon to me psychologically. I've noted elsewhere that writing helps me in myriad ways in dealing with the problems I've faced, and continue to face, in my life. As a tool for dealing with stress, trauma, and bottled emotions, I've yet to find another so versatile, reliable, and easy to use. I wouldn't give it up for anything.
The poetry is a little different, even if the basic mechanic of it is about the same overall. I didn't start writing poetry until I started posting stories here, and started reading through some of the poetry others had posted, but I'm glad I gave it a shot. I write fiction to create worlds where things work out the way I wished the world worked sometimes (i.e.: things work out in the end, the good gals and guys get their happily ever after, and the baddies get their TNT-and-buckshot sandwich or whatever).
But with the poetry, I write it as a way to kind of put up a picture of how I see the world, even if I can't draw what I'm seeing (especially useful if I'm trying to draw an abstract concept, emotion, or idea. It's hard to draw a feeling, you know?), in a way that feels like it's making a thought process along the lines of what I'm thinking or feeling while experiencing or observing what I'm trying to present. Where the stories are how I'd like the world to behave, the poems are how I see the world actually behaving. There are exceptions on both sides, of course, but they don't occur often.
Ever since my options for activities to fill the day were truncated, I've fallen into drawing and writing more and more. I've sort of slacked off on stuff that I can post here, but I'm hoping that I can change that in the future, as I do sorely miss the feedback and the knowledge that others are getting at least a moment's entertainment out of the stupid little worlds I make in my head when I'm not busy pissing off everyone I can around me.
So there's my reason(s); long-winded, more or less complete (there's more to it; I could probably write quite a few pages if I really examined all the why's and picked them apart, but I think I've barfed enough onto the page already), and there for everyone to see (and probably terribly clichéd, much like most of my life, I'm sure).
wD
I was reading before I started school (according to my mom; I don't remember that far back. My memory is destroyed, and a lot of stuff back there is just gone), and as long as I can remember, I've loved reading.
My dad was always big into reading, and always had a mountain of books around the house. Not a lot of stuff that kids should be reading, really, but that didn't stop me from digging through the bookcases and picking out books that looked interesting to me. By the time high school rolled around, I was a huge fan of Koontz, Crichton, King (man oh man, was I ever a nut for ol' Steve, especially his damnable Dark Tower), Brian Jacques, Piers Anthony, Douglas Adams, and most Marvel comic books.
I started getting into trouble regularly around 8th grade; I stopped doing homework (why do the stuff we just learned in class again at home? I know this crap, we just went over it. I'm not doing it again, that's stupid, I got it), I started drawing on any piece of paper given to me in class instead of writing answers in the blanks (if you don't want a page filled with axe-wielding barbarians attacking tanks and gunslingers fighting off demons and big titted female goblins with flamethrowers, then you probably shouldn't have given me a piece of paper with so much empty space and wide margins on the sides), and I started writing my own fantasy and sci-fi stories in notebooks that were intended for taking notes in class. I was getting into trouble for other stuff as well, but not as much; I learned rather quickly when it came to not getting caught for a lot of the crap I pulled. The drawing and the writing though, I saw as minor. I didn't care if the teacher saw me doing it. I was an asshole.
I never intended for anyone to read the stories I wrote; I was just writing for me, to entertain myself. It was a lot like my drawing in that regard. The stories that came about formed along the same lines, as well. Cyborg knights fighting zombified dragon wizards; necromancers raising armies of dinosaur skeletons that the US Army had to take down with tanks and jets; crap like that.
These days, I write less outlandish stuff when I focus on fiction, but I still like to sail through the absurd at times with tales of high adventure and two-fisted action. The stuff that I post here; it's easily the tamest, most grounded of my writing. Nothing else that I write would be posted, as a lot of it would be barred due to content (there's a lot of 'coming of age' adventure type of stories about groups of friends having grand and perilous adventures that test their resolve, their bonds as friends, and their physical fortitude and whatnot; a lot of it contains a bunch of violence and stuff involving teenagers that the site would give a big ass 'NOOOOPE' on), but it's all writing for the same reasons, really, no matter the subject matter; same with the poetry when I gave it a shot, sort of: I started to write to entertain myself, and it worked. I get a kick out of it; always have, and I suspect I always will. Where before I never would have considered showing my works to anyone else, now I enjoy doing so. It's another reason that I write as I do these days: To entertain others. Seeing the feedback that I have since I started posting stories and poems here, I've seen that the 'stupid little stories' (as I'd always thought of them) that I write can do for others what they do for me; namely, give a little break from the real world and provide a simple escape into a fantasy world where things just work out better. A new reason that has developed in the last decade or so of my writing has been catharsis. My writing has taken on a venting aspect that has been a boon to me psychologically. I've noted elsewhere that writing helps me in myriad ways in dealing with the problems I've faced, and continue to face, in my life. As a tool for dealing with stress, trauma, and bottled emotions, I've yet to find another so versatile, reliable, and easy to use. I wouldn't give it up for anything.
The poetry is a little different, even if the basic mechanic of it is about the same overall. I didn't start writing poetry until I started posting stories here, and started reading through some of the poetry others had posted, but I'm glad I gave it a shot. I write fiction to create worlds where things work out the way I wished the world worked sometimes (i.e.: things work out in the end, the good gals and guys get their happily ever after, and the baddies get their TNT-and-buckshot sandwich or whatever).
But with the poetry, I write it as a way to kind of put up a picture of how I see the world, even if I can't draw what I'm seeing (especially useful if I'm trying to draw an abstract concept, emotion, or idea. It's hard to draw a feeling, you know?), in a way that feels like it's making a thought process along the lines of what I'm thinking or feeling while experiencing or observing what I'm trying to present. Where the stories are how I'd like the world to behave, the poems are how I see the world actually behaving. There are exceptions on both sides, of course, but they don't occur often.
Ever since my options for activities to fill the day were truncated, I've fallen into drawing and writing more and more. I've sort of slacked off on stuff that I can post here, but I'm hoping that I can change that in the future, as I do sorely miss the feedback and the knowledge that others are getting at least a moment's entertainment out of the stupid little worlds I make in my head when I'm not busy pissing off everyone I can around me.
So there's my reason(s); long-winded, more or less complete (there's more to it; I could probably write quite a few pages if I really examined all the why's and picked them apart, but I think I've barfed enough onto the page already), and there for everyone to see (and probably terribly clichéd, much like most of my life, I'm sure).
wD
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