catelin

I've been thinking about writing over the last few days...really thinking about it. Mostly, I've been wondering about the different reasons people write, and how they write--how much or little of their own voices creep into their printed words, what motivates them. I'm not thinking so much about journaling. I can certainly understand most of the many reasons a person might journal. I'm talking about writing for an audience--poetry, fiction, essays...those sorts of things. I was discussing this with my doctor, who often writes for a living. We talked about our reasons for writing and I realized for the first time that not all of us writers go through the same process to create our stories. I think there are different types of writers and I'm trying to figure out what they might be.

I perceive myself as more of a scribe, even though I write fiction for the most part. I chronicle little pieces of people and things that shine and catch my attention somehow. I find a comfort in acknowledging the tremendous battles/losses/heroics/etc. to be found in the smallest of moments. I tell the stories of the angels that dance on the heads of pins...or at least, that's how I think of what I do. I am compelled to write, not so much as a psychological release of my demons, but as a way of reaching out and patting the universe's hand. It's corny, I know. But some of the best and most beautiful things in my life are.

So what is it, writers? What is it that makes you do what you do? How is it you perceive what your purpose in writing is? What do you like or dislike most about it? I'm so intensely curious about this now.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Date: 2002-02-06 02:18 pm (UTC)

From:

beatnikside.livejournal.com

Re:

I wouldn't say that at all, though the Doc would. I'm more compelled to take baths. Writing is a ... therapy? Addiction? I don't have the proper word for it. You're talking to someone who took his typewriter to the beach before the laptop era.

I guess it was a kind of defense against the world for a time. Then I got a camera.

Worth noting -- I keep a ink-and-paper journal as well, and have since 1979. In 1993 I started writing in it every day. My frequency has recently slowed to once or twice a week, but I'm still with it. And the journal is never more than ten feet away from me. Just in case.

Date: 2002-02-06 04:55 pm (UTC)

doctorgogol.livejournal.com

no subject

No, I wouldn't put you in the "compelled" category. I think putting words down on paper or on a screen is more like joy for you (even it doesn't feel like joy sometimes).

Interesting comment on writing being a defense. For me, it's more often than not my revenge upon the world.

I still think the most elemental reasons I write are twofold: 1) to feed the souls of others the way my soul has been fed by art and literature, and 2) because it's really the only thing I do well. Alas.