It's IWSG Day. The goal of this blog hop is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds. IWSG is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. To find links to other IWSG contributors, click here. A big thank you to co-hosts for November: Jemi Fraser, Kim Lajevardi, L.G Keltner, Tyrean Martinson, and Rachna Chhabria.
November question: Albert Camus once said, “The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.” Flannery O’Conner said, “I write to discover what I know.” Authors across time and distance have had many reasons to write. Why do you write what you write?
To my daughter’s annoyance, I’m the kind of reader you have to address several times before I look up saying, “Sorry. What?” My husband used to insist, “You remember, we saw this movie,” when the truth was, no, I didn’t remember because while he watched the movie, I disappeared into a book. How proud I'd be to write a novel that transports someone else the same way.
Like reading, I immerse myself in writing, but, unlike other parts of my life, when I write, good enough is never good enough. I spend hours striving for images that will strike the reader, trying to create characters who are not contrived, editing a piece once, twice, seventeen times, and then twenty-seven more. Writing well means walking away and returning to tweak, massage and re-write. It means trying harder than I try at anything else. The truth is, its the most honest and focused work I do. I love it and lose myself to it.
So, why do I write what I write? Because just like when reading, I come back to the real world blinking, a bit foggy, but always aware while I'd been visiting a fictional location, it was a place where I was my best me.
Why do you write what you write?
