Why We Write
In my last post, about writing about the truth of things, the Wave-inatrix stated a belief that I hold - that we writers are wired a bit differently than other people. Our good friend Jake Hollywood had this to say:
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Actually, I disagree with that statement. We don't feel these truths more deeply than other people. The difference between us and "other people" isn't that we feel more deeply. It's our willingness to rise above our pain, anguish, outrage, or happiness and tell these truths to others. We write because we can and do, not because others can't or won't. That's the only difference between "us" and "them." Not anything else.
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Rouge Wavers know I love a good rejoinder. That's what makes a horse race. And surely, the question of whether writers are different is a provocative one. I base my feeling that writers are wired differently on a few things. Anecdotally, on the fact that I work with hundreds of writers and I see commonalities. And, as a former homeschooling parent and a person who has always been held in thrall by how the brain works, I have read and studied books like Emotional Intelligence, Blink, and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. And yes, yes, guilty as charged, I am a What the Bleep fan. I am fascinated by the workings of the brain and the way we create and interact with reality.
And I think it's been fairly well established that we don't all process things in the same way. Writers don't process things the same way musicians do. Or brick layers. Or presidents. We process sight, sound and emotion into memory, feeling, experience and truth - using nothing but words. No, I do not believe that writers are like other people. Let's face it - we're weird.
But another question arises - why do we write? Jake said something about a willingness. Is it that? Or is it vanity? Compulsion? Self-soothing and coping? Or is it academic and altruistic? A morbid fight against our own mortality? God knows it's all of those reasons and more, being that we humans are frightfully complex. But let me ask a really provocative question, and one that I seemed to be intimating in my last post - is it a responsibility? Maybe. Maybe not. But surely your writing won't pass the test of time if it isn't done with heart and with an effort to speak the truth.
So the Wave-inatrix wants to know - why do you write?
Postscript: Regarding the Bucket List post - to everyone who commented and who emailed me privately, I can't express how gratified and honored I am that my words meant something to you.
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9 comments:
I write because I can't afford to pay someone to write my scripts for me.
I don't know if this is a valid reason for writing -- actually, when I thought about it, I felt a little embarrassed. I write for the same reason I used to play "witches" when I was a kid. I wanted to change the world to my liking, switch the endings around, fix the wrongs and heal the wounds. (In my child's mind, I cured Bobby Sherman of his studder when he was on "Here Come the Brides." I think that was the name of the show and Yes, I am that old).
I wonder though, if writing with that secret wish is writing contrary to "the truth?" Maybe my writing suffers because of my unwillingness to accept things as they are.
~P
I think that is a perfectly valid reason to write, actually. You write of visions of the way it could be. I still think that in doing so, you are indeed touching some truths about human nature. You write of possibilities; that's amazing.
Julie, I think you misunderstood me only slightly. I wasn't arguing if writers are "wired" differently than most people or not -- that's a whole different subject than if we "feel" differently than other people...
You suggest that writers do indeed feel differently than most people and I think they don't. The difference, the only difference as I see it, is that as writers we also write about those things which affect us, our responses to those mysteries, and the possibilities which exists.
In a lot of ways you could say writers are reactionaries. And in that way we're not unlike people who respond to calls of help in natural disasters, who become soldiers or cops or doctors or nurses, who speak out against injustice in the world, etc. The difference is our call to action manifests itself via the written word.
But feel differently than most people? No, I don't think so. The how of how we respond? Maybe that's different, but not the feeling.
The question of why we write? Or why I write? That's another question, which I'll get to sometime.
I write because I like to create. Even when I was a child, before I knew what a writer was, I could entertain myself by creating a story.
When I was a child I loved those wordless picture books because I would make up my own story to fit the pictures in the book.
The best explanation I ever heard to explain the difference between creative people (writers, inventors, etc.) is that creative people actually pay attention to the thoughts that float through their heads.
Every day we have thoughts. Random thoughts. Odd thoughts. Most people just ignore these thoughts because they are not related to what they are focussed on now.
Creative people do on occasion pay attention to those thoughts. And, those random thoughts, that take you to odd places is where creative thoughts come from.
I think having a creative soul pushes us to do something in the arts. I was making up songs by age 7, making my own comics in middle school and I've been playing piano and writing songs and poetry since I was in high school.
Being a movie lover, it seemed an obvious and natural step to move into screenwriting. I just didn't arrive at that realization until a couple of years ago.
What made me want to, though, was that I was no longer satisfied with the stories I was paying to see. I found myself saying, "I would have done that differently" and "they took a wrong turn there - should have followed a different storyline." When I noticed that happening more frequently, I decided I needed to stop complaining and start writing.
The brevity of this life demands nothing less than our best efforts to converse truthfully with those whom we will never meet; both present and future.
I write because I value those who have done so before me, and I am ignorant of those who have not.
...Because if I don't feed the beast, she's like a dedicated pie-oholic casing a pie joint...
I write because I have to. There are stories in me that want to get out, that need to be shared. I spend so much time in my own head - imagining, plotting, playing the "What If" game - that it begins to feel turgid if I don't write.
Plus there's nothing more exciting and rewarding than when someone else is touched by a story you've written. That sense of connection, of a sharing of thoughts and emotions... it's an indescribable feeling.
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