I feel I might be in a minority, but I wonder how many other fiction writers might feel the same way. And how many readers of fiction might feel this way about what they read?
Why do you write?
You’d think it would be a common question for writers. I’m not sure it is, and I can only recall being asked once. I certainly can’t say how much other writers may consider the question.
I certainly think about it, possibly because writing wasn’t something I even considered when I was young. In my twenties I began to dabble purely because I had become very interested in fantasy and science-fiction.
Then my life turned upside down and I went looking for that proverbial cave to get away from everything. Writing was my excuse, and subconsciously I knew that’s all it really was. Has anyone else been in that position where writing became your sole purpose? In my case, of course, it wasn’t so much a purpose as a reason for having as little to do with the ‘real world’ as possible.
I had been dabbling and the few favourable comments made me think that perhaps I had some talent. The problem was that other than the very basics you should learn in primary and secondary school, and the ideas I may have subconsciously gained through my reading, I really knew nothing about writing.
So, I decided I had to learn about this craft and improve as much as I could. My writing was slowly bringing me back into the ‘real world’ and I applied to join the ‘Year of the Novel’ group run by the Qld Writers Centre and led by Dr Kim Wilkins (though she didn’t have her doctorate at the time). One of the first things Kim did was ask this very question. Why do you write?
My mind panicked, trying to think of the answer. I’d begun to hope that she wasn’t going to bother me when she finally pointed my way. I blurted out the only thing that had popped into my head at that very moment.
‘It’s my way of having my say.’
It was still some years before I fully realised I had hit the nail on the head. Even with my reading, I often became more excited about the ideas within the story rather than the characters or the story itself. Then I’d fallen in love with the satire of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. I often use the title of one of Douglas’s books to summarise what I really write about.
Yep, ‘Life, the Universe and Everything’.
Not much to write about, is it? And, yep, it isn’t 42. Then again…
I understand that all writers of fiction do this as part of their writing. But for me, it is the major part, and not something that might happen as part of the story or a feature of their characters. Sometimes this will be the main theme, but often it is simply an aspect of my characters and their interactions, or a small part of the story, or even a feature of the setting.
This is probably more obvious in my novellas where the basic idea may be the main theme and more apparent. With the longer books, the story or characters do have a tendency to ‘take over’ just a little and perhaps vary away from the ideas. And I have written the occasional short story where there have been no ‘deeper’ thoughts other than the story or character.
Yet it is my major reason for writing and has become more so than ever. In fact, these days, I could almost go so far as to say, I write for myself.
Okay, that sounds a little self-absorbed, so I’ll rephrase.
I’m simply not the person to get involved in debates, social discussions, or become active in those ‘real life’ things. Writing has become my way of expressing my ideas. Without trying to become overly dramatic, it has become my way of venting.
And that’s something I think most of us need. Perhaps it’s the reason I’ve started ‘playing around’ with some non-fiction essays. I usually just call them blogs because they may only ever appear on the social media. Still, you never know. There may be a ‘small’ book there.
The other reason to say that I write for myself, is that I don’t intentionally write for the reader. Yes, I’ll use the techniques I’ve learned to try to make the stories as appealing to the reader as I can, but it is far from my main reason for writing. Like any writer, I hope people will read and enjoy my writing. More than that, I hope my stories will make people think about the ideas in the writing.
So, taking that a step further, you could say that if I’m writing for anyone else, I should be writing for the people least likely to read or enjoy my writing. That really is a next-to-impossible situation and not one I’m going to worry about. I can only hope that my ideas may resonate with at least a few readers.