05.01.07
Why Write?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Not necessarily why do I write, but more along the lines of why do any of us write? It’s not a competition, is it? We don’t read each other’s work and think to ourselves, I can do better than that. Tolstoy? Ha!
But then again…
There are two pieces to the puzzle, I think. First, we have to have a story to tell. And that story has to be insistent. It has to want to be written. It has to drive us nuts, until, exhausted with the thinking about it, we can’t stand it any more and have to write it down, for no other reason than we just can’t sleep at night.
But then, we need to have a certain confidence in ourselves. Not delusions of grandeur, mind you, but a confidence that we can do our story justice. I will most likely never be studied in school alongside Shakespeare or Twain or Poe. But with my story, I can do a decent job. I’m better than some, not nearly as good as others.
We’re not writers because we want to be the best. We’re not even really that concerned about whether we get an agent, or a publisher, or how high up the best-seller list we go. In the end, all we really care about is putting the story on the page in the best way we know how. In the end, it’s really about hoping one day to get a good night’s sleep.
Sheryl said,
May 1, 2007 at 10:20 am
Reasons for writing are as individual as the writers themselves. Sometimes there is a competitive edge, at times it’s the need for fame but most often it’s a need to get a decent night’s sleep. I am in awe of your talent and while I occasionally wail that I’m not that good, I won’t stop writing. Characters and stories compel me to put words on the page. Good or bad, interesting or boring, rambling or concise - none of it matters. I have to write. I just don’t always want to share.
Good post, Bryan. Welcome back.
dee said,
May 1, 2007 at 11:26 am
WSS.
Ok, that was cheating, wasn’t it? I do agree that there are very individual reasons for writing, but the most pervasive one of which I am aware is simply - I write because I MUST. I’m included in that group.
For me, writing is something that is as essential to me as breathing. To put it another way, it is almost as essential as chocolate. I’m hoping that you understand the implications there.
Great post. Very nice. It’s so good to see you again!
orangehands said,
May 1, 2007 at 4:30 pm
so BCB sent me over here, and then i read your Mallory excerpts, and i got hooked.
write quicker.
hmmm, why we write? to shut the voices in our head up, for at least a little bit, till a new voice takes the place of the old ones.
oh, you meant the sane answer…i like the “so we can sleep at night” line.
Jennifer Talty said,
May 1, 2007 at 8:12 pm
Here comes seriuos Jen. I know, you all hate it when I do this, especailly on other peoples blogs, but get over it. It’s me (jen) we are talking about.
Sure, everyone writes for different reasons. Sure, some is vanity, compitition, desire to rich and famous, the insesant buzz of people talking in your heads, the stories/people/conflict that just won’t stop yapping in your ear when you are supposed to be watching your kids play hockey, cook dinner or sleep. To me, those are the obvious, and each of us writers have a little bit of every single one of those reasons in us.
Okay, so maybe we won’t give up writing if we don’t get an agent, or ever get published, but lets all remember we are storytellers. We write because on some level we want to “share” our stories with others. For those of you who know me, know I’m am very passionate about my writing. Just as passionate as I am about teaching teaching dance, loving my children…see my point? Anyone who knows me will tell you I’m constantly talking about my kids and their accomplishments, or the kids I teach. I also constantly want to share what goes inside my head, as scary as that may be.
My point is this…we write because we have a story to tell, and if we are being honest, we want the world to hear it.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
me said,
May 3, 2007 at 8:22 am
I write because I can’t not write. I wanted to be a writer since the second grade. But mainly for me it is a hobby. That’s why I self-publish (that and because I’ll never be as good as Bryan or Sheryl or most anyone else out there). Sure, I want people to buy my books, and I still get the occasional royalty check in the mail (OK, direct deposit, but that doesn’t have the same ring to it). But mainly I write for me. Becasue it’s fun, even when it drives me insane and makes me think I’m an illiterate boob. Because it does wake me up at night; I keep a pen and paper by my bed to write down my midnight inspirations. Because I have to.
Crystal* said,
May 5, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Persistent little neurosis, isn’t it? *grins* Tell me about it. My favorite is character dialogue on my head non-stop.
So no…I won’t be talked about in Literary Classics. But that’s just fine with me. The voices, for at least a couple of days, will cease.
Or I could go back on the medication. lmao
Chrys*
andi said,
May 7, 2007 at 10:36 am
Because I don’t write, I read and think, I am awed by the stuff you carry in your head. I’ve loved the Mallory excerpts, and OK so it isn’t Steinbeck, it is good. And captivating. And if you would finish the dang story you’d sleep better. I’d sleep better. Mallory would sleep better. Tab would too, I’m sure.
I’ve always got things to say, I rarely have things to write. I don’t stay up at night thinking I have just got to say this, but I wish I did stay up at night thinking I have just got to write this. And in your case, you may even stay up at night thinking, I must translate this image to film. oh to have some artist angst, as opposed to the mommy variety.
orangehands said,
May 8, 2007 at 6:22 pm
new post?
Mary Stella said,
May 9, 2007 at 3:06 pm
I write a lot of different things for a lot of different reasons and am enormously fortunate that my “day job” (aka the 9-5/40 hours a week position that I do instead of writing books full time) also requires a lot of writing, along with a lot of talking. Truly. I talk and write about dolphins and our facility, its programs, mission, etc. Some would say it’s the perfect job for me. They’d be right.
The truth is that while I frequently get frustrated over my novels, I love to write. Blog posts, emails, newsletter articles, hand-written notes to old friends, bad haiku, you name it. I’m a wordsmith and a word junkie. I love the putting words together, playing with them, using them to bring scenes, characters, ideas, stories alive for other people to read.
I can’t imagine a job that didn’t require me to write. I’d go insane. (No comments on whether that last sentence should read “more insane”.)
orangehands said,
May 9, 2007 at 5:19 pm
hey, bryan, your blog is having the same problem as BCB’s. a new post isn’t showing up.
aren’t you glad she directed me (not that one, this one) over here?
Bryan said,
May 9, 2007 at 7:17 pm
Ah, OH. It’s a pleasure to have a new slavedriver in the house. I’ll see what I can do to accomodate you before the week is out.
Jennifer Talty said,
May 10, 2007 at 3:33 pm
How hard is it to write a post? Seriously. Do you have to like think about it? I don’t think about it, I just write it. Then again, maybe that’s why I sound like a dork half the time.
orangehands said,
May 11, 2007 at 3:15 am
JJ: you don’t sound like a dork. crazy, perhaps, but not a dork.
ok, see, he’s so much more accommodating than BCB. she’s just giving me- not that one- the glare. i like a CB that understand what it means to post.
orangehands said,
May 11, 2007 at 3:15 am
yes, ok, i caught it. “understands”. i was just so excited is all.
snakebrain said,
June 13, 2007 at 11:15 pm
Actually I write to prove to myself that I can do it as well as anybody. I set myself the highest standard. Nothing less than getting as close to perfection as possible is acceptable. It means I redraft things fifty times or more. I’ve got one piece in particular that I’ve been working on for nine years on and off, leaving it for a year or two at a time, coming back to it when I feel I’m ready to start again, constantly polishing and repolishing. I’ve got thirty-two finished pages.
Of course, perfection is an unattainable target, but some come much closer than others, and the difference, to me, is in being prepared to chase it.
So in that sense, for me, writing is intensely competitive. If you’ve got Shakespeare or Nabokov or Homer in your sights, you’re perhaps a little more inclined to pull out the last shreds of talent from your soul than if your target is more pedestrian, or if you’re satisfied with factual accuracy, or a rhyme scheme that works. The perfect synthesis of beauty, meaning, allusion, form, sound, myth, poetic truth and all the other elements that make up the compex molecule of a finished piece, creating a finely balanced structure through the craft of writing, the control of language, is the ultimate goal.
I believe you need that passion, that desire to create a work that evokes more than the ink on the page can possibly hold, to write something great. And I don’t think there’s any point in continuing to write if you don’t aspire to create something great.
I may of course just be supremely arrogant…