This is my second Thursday’s Children post. Today, I’m talking about the main inspiration behind my writing.
So.
I’ve been having a Dark Night of the Soul these last few days. First I felt overwhelmed by how much work I had to do, then I found out I had some serious revisions ahead of me that are going to take a lot longer than I had foreseen. I thought the book was in a certain place, but it turns out I was overestimating how ready it was to be sent out into the world. Suffice it to say, I’m bummed about that.
People say writers often go through the 5 stages of depression when they receive feedback, and I think that might be true. However, there are a ton of articles about writers and depression out there (here and here and here, for example), so I don’t feel the need to go through that here. What I want to think about isn’t the negative side of writing, but the incredibly POSITIVE side of it, b/c I think we’ve all had enough sadness this past week.
My friend Juliana L. Brandt asked me the other day (in the midst of a lot of whining on my part) why I write. I was caught off guard by the question. Isn’t it obvious? I thought at first. It’s because…but then I didn’t really have an answer.
So I forced myself to figure out what it was, and then I wrote it down.
It wasn’t just that I loved “creating,” although I do (part of my answer was that I love the craft. Pushing a sentence to its limits, even if it sometimes breaks. I think there’s something magical there, something worth fighting for.
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But the bulk, the heart of the reason I write, is this:
I have a lot of friends and family that care about me, but I still feel alone sometimes. Writing helps me feel connected. It helps me feel like I’m part of a larger conversation, like I’m being heard and also hearing others.
And that can be summed up even more succinctly, I think, into something like:
I write because I want to connect with people.
I’m still not out of the post-feedback doldrums (hell, I haven’t even started revising yet), but I AM looking at my book with a renewed sense of purpose, which in turn has helped me reexamine what it is I’m trying to communicate with my book. I’m happy about that.
So what about you? Why do you write?
Please let me know in the comments.
Oh, and guys? Thanks for listening. Love ya.
I write too because it means I’m not so alone. Do you remember the meme that went around about a year ago? #loveYA or something like that. That was a powerful and so important movement. Books got me through being a teenager- I want to share that with others 🙂
I write because…
You’re right, we always think it’s an easy question to answer but it really isn’t!
I think for me, it’s the case that I write because I can’t not. If I try and stop writing, I end up just doing it in my head. If I try and stop that, I get grumpy and lethargic. I can’t not write. I never intended to be a writer, I never thought about sitting down to write a novel. It’s just that I wrote, and it ended up as book. You’re right, it’s a conversation: with the book, with the readers, and with myself.
🙂
I always write my first drafts for myself, and revise (and revise again!) for my audience. But in the past year that I’ve been on Twitter, I’ve found my writing “Tribe” of published authors, pre-published authors, lit bloggers, interns, agents and editors who have been invaluable at helping rethink my MS and WIP. I could not have gotten to this point in the publishing process without their help and support. Lauren, you and Juliana are both part of my Tribe. Good luck getting through the rough patch. Happy writing!
Kris
@KKMHOO
Your post is full of heart and guts. Thanks. A story had been brewing inside me for years. Eight years, to be exact. Then I wrote it. Badly. I’ve written what I felt compelled to write and I’m not a writer. Not yet, anyway. I finished my manuscript in September. Then I spent the last six months revising it. I twisted it, tickled it and teased it etc., up to this point. Now, it is as good as I can make it. Now I might need to bury it – for a while anyway. I think I need to read some more great middle grade books and only go back to my own project until I can be sure I won’t puke when I read it again. What you writers do! My hat is off to you. I didn’t know. Please keep writing, if that’s your passion. -rob
Thank you, Rob! You should know that if you’ve written something–even if it was only a few paragraphs–then you’re a writer. And look at you–you wrote a BOOK! Welcome to the club 🙂
Thanks, Lauren. Good luck with your revisions!
I adore making a whole world exist that didn’t exist before – and I don’t even write fantasy. I also find that writing teaches me things I already knew, but didn’t know I knew. How’s that for a sentence on the verge of collapse? It reaffirms what matters to me (love, integrity, courage). And yes, of course, I hope the same things that matter to me, matter to others.
I started writing because I loved reading. And came to the realization that some of the books I was reading weren’t that great. They were junk, actually. And I thought, I could do better. So, I started writing my first manuscript and finished it in two weeks. And then, I lost my connection. So, I had to take a step back and re-evaluate the situation. It wasn’t good enough. To be better wasn’t good enough. I needed a real reason. A reason that would make me want to keep writing even if I never received success. Even if, no one ever read and bought a copy of my book.
And that’s when I decided to write for me. Because I needed to. I had good stories to tell and people needed to hear them. And now, I struggle from day to day with daily word counts and accepting corrective criticism. But, no matter what, even through all of the let downs and frustrations I’ve never regretted this horrible, God forsaken path that I have chosen.
Dude, it is SO tough to get feedback like that. You feel like “Hey man, I’m almost there!” and then someone tells you, nope, you have a lot of work to do. But you will learn so much! You’ll be such a boss rockstar when you finish!
I write because I LOVE CREATING THINGS. Anything I can make, I will make it. Also, I love writing things people will read. I’m a fanatic reader, and at some point part of me realized, “Oh, shit, people have to WRITE stuff in order for me to READ.” And the maker/contributor in me realized that I had to hold up my end of the market.
Then, pretty soon, I realized I could write my favorite books and didn’t have to rely on OTHER people writing my favorite books for me. WHOA.
I write because I must. Man, the ideas! If I didn’t give them a voice, I’m not sure what would happen. Implosion? Explosion? Writing is a purging. It is also an act of bravery. I write because no one else can tell my stories. Writing is sharing. And I’d be selfish to horde them all to myself. Or something.
I write because I feel like I have stories to tell. The problem with that is that I don’t ALWAYS feel like I have stories to tell. There are days and even occasionally weeks when I won’t write a single new word, then I’ll feel like it’s time again and do 5k a day for a while. I need to feel like there’s something pressing to get out before I set finger to keys, which makes me less productive than a lot of others.
Well, in addition to the loneliness issues yiu’ve already touched upon, I write to make sense of the world; to put all these disperate, contradictory aspects of life into context. I don’t always like what I find, but sometimes I surprise myself and smile, and it’s for those little moments specifically that I continue to put pen to paper.
I write because I can’t not write. 🙂 Good post!
~Dannie @ Left to Write